Time for Independence
by Black's Phoenix
Summary: AU: After the events of OOTP it is time for Harry to take control of his life with the aid of a few people. Will be HarryNarcissa and a couple of other girls with him. rating may change over time
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Characters in story belong to J.K. Rowling. I do not own any of them. This story is of my own creating just using some of the characters from J.K. Rowling

**Chapter One** – A Time for Thought

Remus slowly made his way down Privet Drive towards number four where Harry lived. He had a letter inside of his cloak, while thoughts swirled through his head.

The past couple of days had been eventful to say the least. Shortly after the school year had ended he had received two letters. One of them was in his cloak and the other was for him to read.

One of the biggest surprises was the fact that the letter he received was from Narcissa Black, formerly Narcissa Malfoy. She was Sirius' youngest cousin and he never really knew her because she was a couple of years behind the Marauders in school. Inside of the letter it explained how she had enough of losing family members and that it was time for her to do something about the situation.

She said that she knew that it was time for her to do something of her own choosing and that choice was to help Harry. The letter told Remus that she wanted to help Harry to make his own choices instead of allowing Dumbledore to blindly lead him in one direction or the other. Narcissa also stated that she wanted to meet Harry in a few days and that she would explain some things to Harry in the other letter. She understood if Remus thought that Harry would need a bodyguard in case something happens but she told him to make sure it was someone trustworthy and that would not betray Harry.

These thoughts came to an abrupt halt as he saw Harry outside weeding the front of number four Privet Drive. "Hello Harry. Do you mind if I have a word with you inside?"

"Moony?" asked Harry, bewildered by seeing his former professor standing in front of him. "What are you doing here? I thought that Dumbledore didn't want anyone to talk to me for a while."

"No… he does not want anybody to talk to you right now," said Moony. "But… there are a few things that are important to talk about."

"Um… okay," said Harry slowly. "Up to my room I guess." He then led Remus into the house and up to his room where Hedwig was sleeping with her beak tucked underneath one of her wings.

Remus closed the door and took a seat before he began by saying, "Harry there are some things that you need to know and unfortunately some of them are things that you are going to hate. Last year Ron, Hermione, and Ginny began spying on you and reporting to Dumbledore about things concerning you. Now neither Sirius nor I knew anything about this. Only Dumbledore, those three, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley knew about this taking place."

Harry's blood was beginning to boil. His supposed friends had betrayed him. They had tossed away his friendship so easily just because the headmaster wanted them to help him.

Seeing this Remus continued, "I know this is just worse because Sirius has just died and now you find out that the people you thought were your friends were lying to you and manipulating you for certain purposes. Look I know that this might seem like I am being a jerk but I have some important things to talk about with you. The first is after I leave I want you to read this letter."

On that note he withdrew the letter from his cloak and handed it to Harry. Harry just looked confused by this but took the letter and put it to the side for the moment and waited for Remus to continue.

"The person who wrote you that letter wants to help you Harry," said Remus without skipping a beat. "Now I don't know exactly how they plan to help you and unfortunately I will not be here to find out. Dumbledore is sending me away on a mission and in order to make him think that I am still following him I need to go and try and do this mission."

Harry was about to say something but was cut off when he heard Moony say, "Now don't worry I have arranged so that a couple of people will be watching you carefully. I got that letter along with another one a couple of days ago and then after I made the discovery of your former friends I went around talking to a few people."

"I got Tonks, Moody, and Kingsley of the Order to promise that they would watch over you while I am away. None of them will betray you to the headmaster because they all have there own reasons."

"Kingsley is on duty tonight and in that letter it will talk to you about going to meet this person face-to-face. Take him with you as some protection and then after you leave the meeting talk to him about what transpired. Now unfortunately cub I have to go and pack in order to leave for this mission."

"Ok Moony," said Harry with a solemn expression on his face as he saw his parent's last real friend that he knew prepare to leave.

Once Moony had left Harry opened the letter that was next to him on his bed. After looking over the letter, which basically told him what Moony had said with the exception of meeting this person at Godric's Hollow at 7:00 that night.

Harry lay there for about half hour thinking about whether or not he should go and meet this person. "What do I have to lose if I go? Moony said that Kingsley would go with me and that he wouldn't tell anyone about me going."

He then got up off of his bed and went back outside in order to talk to his guard. "Psst… who is on duty today?"

"Kingsley…," said the auror hidden under an invisibility cloak. "What do you need Harry? Remus was just here so I bet this is about the meeting tonight, right?"

"Um… yeah it is about that. I was just wondering why you agreed to help me out and not tell Dumbledore," said Harry as he shifted uncomfortably.

"It is really simple Harry," said Kingsley. "You have been through more then anybody should ever have to go through and it has been hell. Now to find out that some of the people you thought were closest to you are betraying you I just can't stand that. I grew up with a tough life and from all I heard from Remus and Sirius, before he passed away, I came to the realization that if I could help you in any manner possible I will give you my help."

Harry stood there and just pondered what he was told for a minute before saying, "Thank you Kingsley. It is nice to finally have a few people who actually will let me make my own choices and will help me no matter what choices I make."

"Don't worry Harry the few who support you want to help you make your own decisions," said Kingsley. "Now here before you head back inside take this."

He tossed Harry a wand holster that strapped on his forearm. "Strap it on and come over here so that way I can charm it so that nobody will know that it is there. Don't worry even if someone manages to discover that it is there they can't withdraw it through magic… so they have to take it out of the holster physically."

Harry strapped on the holster, placed his wand into it and walked over to Kingsley so that it could be charmed to blend in with his forearm. "Thanks for this Kingsley; I'll come back out around 6:30 so we can leave for where my parents used to live."

Kingsley just watched Harry go back into the house and began to think about what could possibly happen later that night between Harry and Ms. Black.

Harry flopped down onto his bed and thought about the events that had happened so far today. He no longer was friends with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny even though they had no clue that he knew that they were spying on him for Dumbledore. Then there was this mystery person that wanted to meet him tonight to talk.

"Nothing in my life can ever be simple can it?" Harry said out loud to himself. Almost everything in his life had to be difficult. His date with Cho, the Yule Ball with Parvati, his parents, Sirius, Snape's lessons, and not to mention everything that he had put up with being the Boy-Who-Lived.

Slowly the afternoon wasted away with Harry just thinking over the things that happened to him up until now. Finally it was 6:30 so Harry grabbed some food and headed out the door silently so that the Dursleys wouldn't know that he had left the house.

"Come on Harry we need to walk a block or two before we call the night bus," said Kingsley underneath an invisibility cloak. "Just so that Mrs. Figg doesn't know that you have left the area mind you now come on lets hurry. Better to be there early instead of late.

The two of them walked in silence for about two blocks before Harry felt a hand on his shoulder signaling it was time to stop. Kingsley pulled off the invisibility cloak and held out his wand hand to signal for the bus.

With a bang the Night Bus appeared and Stan opened the door and said, "Welcome to the Night Bus, where can I take you two?"

"Godric's Hollow, and we will just be paying for the ride, nothing more," said Kingsley before Harry could open his mouth.

"Alright sir," said Stan. "That will be one galleon and two sickles for the both of you. Now come on get inside."

Before Kingsley could say anything Harry pulled out the money and dropped it into the box at the front and then proceeded to make towards a couple of empty seats.

"So… do you know who this person is that I am supposed to meet tonight?" asked Harry hoping to get a little information other then the fact that this person knew Sirius and that Sirius was innocent, was not a death eater, and wanted to help him.

"Nothing that I can tell you Harry," said Kingsley "but that is only because this person wanted to introduce themselves to you and not let you hear there name before hand."

"Damn," thought Harry. "I take it this person has some important things to discuss with me and would rather make sure that I am there in person to discuss these matters."

"Yeah I am sorry about that Harry."

Harry just nodded his head and sat their in silence as the bus ride continued. It was 6:55 when they finally got off the Night Bus and Kingsley had put the invisibility cloak back over himself in order to remain hidden.

The two quietly made their way to the place that Harry's parents' house used to stand before that fateful night over fourteen years ago. There was a hooded figure already waiting there for him so Harry approached cautiously not sure of what would take place.

"Hello Harry," said the soft feminine voice. "I am glad to see that you came here tonight. There are a few things that I would like to talk to you about and I thought that this would be a quiet place and it would also be nice for you to at least once see where your parents' lived."

"Yes I came," said Harry calmly. "Now, who are you and what exactly is it that you wish to talk to me about?"

"Well no point in beating around the bush here with you then," said the female. She then lifted her hands to the hood of her cloak to reveal her face and hair.

Long blonde hair fell out of the back of the hood as a beautiful face that Harry recognized from the Quiditch World Cup a couple of years ago appeared. "Mrs. Malfoy?"

"Actually it is Narcissa _Black_," said Narcissa "and I would prefer if you call me Narcissa. I am no longer married to Lucius because very simply he broke the marriage contract by being sent to Azkaban and because of that the two of us are no longer married. Now relax as I explained in the letter to you we have some things that I want to talk to you about."

Harry just stared utterly shocked that he saw the mom of his school rival standing in front of him. It took several minutes before Harry finally regained his voice and said, "Yeah alright but if you even try to pull anything here I swear you will regret it."

**Authors note: Hey everybody hope you are intrigued by the opening chapter. This should be different from any story that I have read so far. This will be a multi pairing story but I am not sure as to how many people should be paired and married to Harry eventually. So let me know how many girls you want with Harry it is either 3 or 4. Now as for requests on the girls just to let everyone know Narcissa will be one of them but Blaise will not because Blaise will be a male in this story and I will not write slash.**

**As for my other story A Black's Blessing In Green and Silver I have not abandoned it I just have some writers block at the moment on the next chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two** – Time to Move

"Ok," said Narcissa. "Now I brought you here because I want to help you and by helping you I am in fact helping myself as well. You may be wondering if that is the case, why not go to Dumbledore and that reason is because I do not and cannot trust that man and the way he manipulates other people. A perfect example of that is you and this is just based on what I have gained from my son, who I barely consider my son anymore. With the small bits of information that I have heard from him about you it is quiet plane that you are being manipulated by him into what he wants you to be."

Hearing these words Harry just nodded his head. He had already found out about the headmaster's manipulation even if there was nothing that he could do about that at the moment.

"Look I know you are wondering why I would want to help you out all of the sudden, but look at it logically. I have just lost my last cousin and I am now single so am no longer under Lucius' control. My family members are slowly breaking apart. I only have my two sisters alive and I, one who was disowned by my family for following her beliefs and the other is trapped in a situation that I cannot help her. I figure that the best way to try and save my family, myself, and try to make up for my mistakes, like not sending Kreacher back to my aunt's old house and allowing Bellatrix to get the information about where Sirius was living."

To say that Harry was shocked would be an understatement. He could not believe that he had just heard her say that it was Bellatrix that got the information out of Kreacher about where Sirius was living. This only served to infuriate Harry at the fact that not only had she killed Sirius but it was her that had given the information about where Sirius was to Voldemort.

It must have been showing because the next thing Harry heard Narcissa say was, "I know that you are mad at her but listen. She was cut really deeply by Sirius leaving the family and I know that she never meant to kill him. She will never admit the fact but Sirius was her favorite cousin and her being in Azkaban damaged her. All I ask of you is to not kill her if you can, just capture her without the ministry knowing. I do not want to lose anymore of my family."

"I can do that but what do I get in return for helping you out," said Harry. "I mean so far none of this conversation has helped me really. What I want to know is what why am I here?"

"The reason you are here is because I want to help you escape from Dumbledore's control. What I am offering you is my help and a place to stay. No one will be able to find it because only two people other then I know of it and they would never think that you would be there. The reason is that it is my old home, which used to belong to my parents."

"How do I know that I could be safe at this place what I mean is how do I know that I can trust you here? Sure you haven't done anything to me at this meeting but still… this is the rest of the summer we are talking about," said Harry after taking a few moments to consider what he was just told.

"I'll give you that but by staying with me you gain several things," said Narcissa calmly. She had anticipated something like this to occur before hand and had run though several scenarios before hand to cover all possibilities. Narcissa wasn't considered the smartest among her sisters for no reason.

"Besides escaping from Dumbledore you will gain knowledge. A lot of which will be important towards your survival. Another benefit is that you will be able to practice magic and I will help learn what ever I can while you are living there. Some other things though I would rather discuss if you choose to live at the house with me. Now I will give you some time to make your decision but if you do plan to move your place of residence meet me back here tomorrow at 3:00 pm. If you do not I will think nothing of it and pretend that this conversation never took place Before I leave however I just want to leave you with this parchment if you decide to leave your residence have your muggle guardian sign it."

Before Harry had a chance to respond she disappeared with a pop. Harry turned around and slowly started to make his way back towards the street while thinking things over in his head.

He signaled the Night Bus and said nothing to Kingsley as the two made their way back to number four Privet Drive. The only thing that Harry heard as he made his way into the house was that Moody would be on duty tomorrow and that they would stand behind whatever decision Harry made for the future.

He got back to the house and walked up to his room before flopping onto the bed. Harry had to many things running through his head to bother with the Dursleys tonight, so he just figured he would wait till they went to bed to grab a couple of sandwiches.

"What the hell am I supposed to do here? I know that Remus would never lie to me about whether the people I thought were my friends were betraying me or not. He couldn't do that to me especially after losing Sirius," said Harry. "Sirius…"

As Harry lay on his bed staring off into space he lost himself to the world analyzing every word of the conversation that he had with Narcissa Black. Eventually Harry figured that it would be ok to go and grab some food so that he could have something to occupy his stomach.

After making the sandwiches and bringing them back to his room, Harry reflected on what had taken place at number four Privet Drive so far this summer. For the most part Harry was left to himself, which was an improvement that Harry did admit. However it still did not make up for all that he had suffered through here in all the years prior to this, but was that enough to leave this place to spend the summer with someone that he hardly knew?

"I guess that previous years here might not be enough to leave here but the Order guarding me here is more then enough reason," Harry declared. "That means that I guess I have to take a risk here if I want to escape from under Dumbledore's thumb."

As Harry was reaching the end of his musings Pig, Ron's owl, flew through the window. "O great a letter from my so called friends," Harry snorted once he finished his statement as he reached for the tiny owl. Relieving the owl of its burden and opening it Harry began to read wondering what exactly they had to say.

_Dear Harry,_

_How are you doing? Bad question we know. We are all worried about you (_yeah right thought Harry). _Everyone hopes that you are doing better then you were at the end of term. You know that you can talk to us about anything once we see you again (_and be manipulated again?)_, but we don't know when that will be. Anyways we are at you-know-where so we really can't say any more in this letter._

_Your best friends,_

_Ron & Hermione_

"Mindless dribble," said Harry dryly. "Like I didn't already know that they would say that stuff before they sent that letter." He was going to just go to bed but Pig was still in the room evidently waiting for a reply. Harry wrote out two notes, one to the Order saying everything was fine, and the second to the writers of the first letter. It basically stated that he was fine and if he needed to talk he would contact them but he did not want them to owl him again because it was to dangerous. He also requested not to go to you-know-where, just so that he could properly sort out his feelings before start of term.

That letter he had received woke him up slightly so he decided to try and finalize his decision about whether or not to leave Privet Drive and trust Narcissa Black. All of a sudden it came to him about his decision. It was so simple really; he couldn't believe that he hadn't thought this earlier. He had a few people who would be watching over him that she wouldn't know about just in case something went wrong, and plus there was more that could be gained by going then if he chose to stay where he was at the moment.

With that realization in mind Harry finally decided that it was time for some sleep. He knew it was better to at least try and get some sleep even if he most likely wouldn't get a lot because the clock read 3:30am when Harry finally fell asleep.

Harry awoke and his clock read 10:00. "Dam I got more sleep then I thought I would," said a slightly shocked Harry. He still had plenty of time before he would have to leave, and his trunk was mostly packed already. All he had to really do was have either his aunt or his uncle sign the parchment that he was given by Narcissa yesterday. The only thing that Harry could make out of it was that it basically was something that allowed Harry to make legal decisions about what he wanted to do with his life and it would be supported by his legal guardians.

When he arrived in the kitchen he found only Aunt Petunia there, which he figured was a good thing. "Excuse me Aunt Petunia… there is something that I need you to sign, and if you do it will allow me to leave… forever. Do not worry about the people from the train station I have already taken care of them and it will not be a problem."

"Fine, so long as this gets you out of this house once and for all _without_ trouble," said Aunt Petunia as she signed the parchment. "Now when will you be leaving?"

"I will be out of the house by 2:30," said Harry as he went over and grabbed some food. "All of my stuff will be out of the bedroom and you will not have to worry about anything."

Once he finished saying this Harry went back upstairs and just flopped onto the bed and stared blankly into space. Only a few more hours and he would be able to leave Privet Drive… _forever_.

Finally at quarter past two Harry went over and carefully woke up Hedwig. "Hey girl, sorry to wake you up but I need to ask you to disappear for a few hours. You can look for me later tonight where we will be staying for the rest of the summer. His owl's response was just a nip on the finger, slightly harder then normal because she had been woken up but still understanding.

Shortly after he watched his snowy owl, which was his first friend and one he knew would never betray him, fly out the window he grabbed his belongings and headed towards the door. Carefully he made his way down the street with Moody following behind. Harry knew this because of the slight clunking sound that the wooden leg made on the pavement.

"Ready to go, lad?" asked Moody as they stopped a few blocks away.

"Yeah, I just need to call the Knight Bus. Go ahead and pop over to where my parents used to live," said Harry calmly. "I'll be there in a little while, and I would rather not give away the fact that I am with you, who is a known former auror by most people."

"Aye," growled Moody. "Good thinking there Potter, it is nice to see that at least one person your age thinks some things through." On that note Moody disappeared with a pop, while Harry suck out his wand hand.

In a flash the Knight Bus appeared and Harry was on board. After paying the fee and telling the location Harry made his way towards his seat.

He couldn't help but feel nervous as the bus sped towards its destination. "Did I make the right choice," wondered Harry as he sat in his seat. "To late now to second guess my decision though." It seemed like no time at all before Harry appeared at the same place as last night.

Narcissa was already waiting for him by a tree near where the house used to stand. "I see that you decided to show up Harry," she said as she moved towards him. "Now come on we do not want to be outside to long in broad daylight for the second day in a row. It would draw more attention to us the desirable at the present moment."

Harry nodded his head in concurrence as she walked towards him. She then proceeded to pull out her wand and shrink Harry's belongings.

"Put them in your pocket," said Narcissa. "It is only a short walk that we have to take before we can disappear to the place where you will be living for the rest of the summer. Before you ask a stupid questing we just have to go to walk a block to a public floo station."

"O," was all Harry said as he pocketed his belongings and began to follow her down the street, with Moody close behind. They walked in silence before they reached a shop. Harry just followed Narcissa to the fireplace.

"The name of the place that we are staying is called Black Manor," said Narcissa. "I made it so that the floo would be unblocked for this half hour period so that if you did arrive there you could get to the house. Now I'll see you there in a minute."

She disappeared with a soft pop before Harry grabbed some floo powder and tossed it into the fire placed and called out, "Black Manor."

**Authors Note: Thank you for all of the reviews so far with the story. They have helped me to make a few decisions. The first one is that it will be Harry and four women, and another one is that Fleur will be one of the ladies.**

**Now as for the other two, I should have mentioned this before, Harry will also be paired with Parvati, and it will be a careful progression with her that I already have planned out in my head. The fourth lady I have an idea of who I want it to be but that might change depending on how I develop things with Fleur.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three** – Business and Decisions

Harry rolled out of the fire place to see Narcissa standing there pointing her wand at Harry. He quickly whipped out his wand and had it pointed back at her.

"You know Harry it could have been very foolish to come here alone," said Narcissa.

Without having to speak green flames erupted from the fire place and Moody stepped out with his wand ready.

Harry just said, "I've learned not to be quiet so rash anymore, and as you can see I did not come here alone." With that tears started to come to his eyes but Harry wiped them away determined not to cry about what happed a few weeks ago.

To his surprise Narcissa put away her wand and gave a small smile, which was a very different look from the one he saw at the World Cup two summers ago.

"It is good to see that you are finally taking precautions in your life although it took a very unfortunate event to cause that. Now are there any others that will be stopping by this summer to check on you that I should know about?"

"Your niece, who you should call Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt, who is an auror for the ministry, are the only other people who will be stopping by unless Professor… I mean Remus gets back from his mission early."

"Alright," said Narcissa. "Now follow me I want to give you a tour of the house where you will be staying with me for the summer and then we can drop your stuff into your bedroom."

The two of them began to walk as Moody followed silently just saying that after he got a report of the house so that if he needed to find them later he could.

"Alright Harry we have some things to discuss," said Narcissa is an emotionless tone as she showed him the library.

"Umm… what do you mean?"

"Well I want to talk to you about the form that you signed, the lessons that I am planning on teaching you, and some financial matters."

"What? Why would we need to talk about all of this stuff… especially my financial matters," asked Harry completely bewildered as to why she would bring these things up now of all times.

Narcissa just gave a smile and said, "Alright have a seat and I shall tell you my reasons for talking about these… items. I'll just have the house elf bring your trunk to where you will be staying."

Harry pulled out his trunk and placed it on the ground before taking a seat in the chair opposite from Narcissa.

"Cosmo," said Narcissa and with a pop a house elf wearing a towel wrapped like a toga appeared. "Take Mr. Potter's belongings up to the room I showed you earlier."

Harry just sat there shocked at the exchange that just occurred between her and the house elf. He had never expected her to be that civil to a house elf.

"Don't be so shocked Harry. I may be a pureblood but treating a house elf civilly is the way to get the best work out of them," said Narcissa calmly. "They like to serve and because of them there is less work that needs to be done so why should we not be civil."

This was definitely not the answer that he had been expecting especially after meeting Kreacher and Dobby, two house elves that she knew. Harry just shook his head to snap him out his thoughts before he saying, "Ok now what exactly are these _things_ that you want to talk about?"

"Well… let's get the uncomfortable part out of the way first," said Narcissa.

Harry just nodded his head slightly unsure of what exactly she wanted to talk about.

"After Sirius died and Lucius went to Azkaban I did a little research," said Narcissa carefully. "The reason I bring this up is because it concerns your financial future as well as you becoming a legal adult in the eyes of the ministry."

Now Harry was completely puzzled, what could Sirius dieing have to do with him becoming an adult in the eyes of the ministry? It must have shown on his face because Narcissa continued with her train of thought.

"Sirius was your godfather but he never was able to legally adopt you, which means that technically you were never made part of the Black family. This could cause problems when it comes time for the reading of his will because Draco might be able to get his hands on everything even though Sirius most likely made you heir of the Black estate."

"How could your son get the inheritance if Sirius left everything to me in the will," said Harry.

"That is because you are not officially a Black, and he has Black blood in him because I gave birth to him," said Narcissa. "Now since I am no longer married I would rather see everything go to you instead of him, which would be more money for my former husband to use to finance the Dark Lord."

Thoughts were rapidly flowing though Harry's head as he tried to analyze exactly what she was getting at with this conversation.

"Look I'll get straight to the point. After paying the goblins some gold they agreed to hold off the reading of the will until you go in person to see them. They will also not tell anyone else about this, but that is not all that took place while I was at Gringotts," said Narcissa in calm tone.

"Ok… so you got the will reading put off until I go to Gringotts, but then how would I be able to get the inheritance without it being contested," said Harry.

"Well there is one way that could guarantee you getting everything as well as becoming an adult. You have no magical guardian and because of that paper you had your muggle guardian's sign you are allowed to get married," said Narcissa. "Now at Gringotts I discovered that because you did not get adopted into the Black family you will need at least two wives and I have a proposal for you that will solve a large part of your problems."

_At least two wives_, Harry thought, and she said that she had a proposal that could help me out a lot that could only mean...

Suddenly his musing were cut short when she said, "I am guessing that you have already figured out where this is leading towards. What I am proposing is that you and I get married. It will ensure that you get the Black estate, become an adult, and for me it will guarantee that I am never married to Lucius or forced into a marriage with another pureblood who will use me as a trophy wife."

Harry was still wrapping his mind around the fact that she was actually proposing the idea of her, Draco's mom, being one of at least two wives that he would need to have. Yes he did have to admit that she was beautiful… but what exactly was she expecting if she was married to him?

"Umm… I have a couple of questions about this that I need answered before I can even begin to make a decision here," said Harry slowly.

"I had expected that you would."

"Ok, so how about we start with why you would want to be married to me, someone who isn't quiet sixteen. I mean you are at least twice my age and you don't know anything about me," said Harry.

"Yes I am basically twice your age being 32 myself, the youngest of my family, but physical age is of little importance to me because from all that you have been through you really are older then that. Now as to why I would want to be married to you?" said Narcissa. "It is really quiet simple from what I have heard you are a person who stands by the people you care about and would fight hell for them, but that is not the only reason. You are also an honorable individual, which I am sorry to say I would not meet at my age because people already know me to well."

Harry took his time carefully listening to what she said to him before saying, "Ok, but what would you expect if I chose to have you as one of my wives?"

"That you would protect me, listen to me, treat me as an equal, and maybe some other things… eventually."

"Um… those other things," said Harry slowly. "Would one of them be having children together?" Harry gulped visibly after saying this not really sure what answer he wanted to hear.

"I will say this. Eventually I would like to have more children but that is not a necessity to me. It is more important to me that I get some say in the decision about children then being forced one way or the other."

"Umm… forced," said Harry. "Why would you not have a say in whether or not you had children or the number of children that you and your husband would have together? I mean what would prevent you from making these decisions?"

Narcissa sat there thinking for a moment think about how to explain the situation. "Well how about I start with my marriage contract with Lucius. In the contract it basically stated that I would be obedient and follow his wishes. However because of how rich his family is my family figured that he would always be able to bribe his way out of prison. Because of that they just stated that if he was sent to jail the contract would be broken because he failed to be there to fulfill his end of the agreement."

"Now as to the idea about having no say in the decision about children that was because the contract allowed him to choose," explained Narcissa. "Every contract is different and the clauses in them vary on who the families that are being represented are."

Harry just sat there absorbing all of this information. Most of it was stuff that he probably never would have learned if not for this because there was no need for him to personally if Voldemort had never existed.

"I am going to need some time to think about this decision," said Harry. He was having trouble getting the fact that in order to keep the Black estate out of Voldemort's hands he would most likely have to marry Narcissa and then he would still need to get married at least one more time.

"That is fine," said Narcissa emotionlessly. The truth of the matter was that she had expected this to occur. "However the sooner you make your decision, the better because it will give us more time to make certain arrangements as well as to help and keep my son away from the Black estate."

Harry just nodded barely registering what she told him. "I'll have Cosmo show you to your room."

With that the elf appeared and guided Harry through the house to a bedroom with a large bed with his trunk at the foot. Cosmo disappeared as Harry just flopped onto the bed with his thoughts running so fast he could barely keep up with them.

On the one hand he could marry Narcissa, a woman he didn't really know and gain freedom and keep the Black estate away from that ferret, but then again it would mean that he would have at least two wives. Not to mention it was putting his own life on the line by trusting some one that he didn't really even know at all.

"How the bloody hell am I supposed to make this decision," Harry said out loud. "I mean hell what am I supposed to do in this situation. I'm not even sixteen! There are only two people that I should talk to about this decision. One is the person who gave me the proposition and the other is… well I don't know where he is at the moment."

"There is one way to guarantee that she will never betray you Potter," said a gruff voice from the corner of the room.

"Damn it Moody," said Harry as he leapt from the bed and pointed his wand at the corner where the former auror was standing. "You could have at least told me that you were in the room when I entered, you know?"

"Yeah but then you wouldn't be following what that imposter of mine told you in your fourth year… CONSTANT VIGINALNCE!" said Moody as he removed the invisibility cloak.

"Alright, fine," said Harry as he put his wand back into his holster. "Now what is this that you are talking about for guaranteeing that she wouldn't betray me?"

"Just have her take a witch's oath on her magic," said Moody calmly. "Make it a two a two part one that first she would never betray you to Voldemort or any of his followers and the second that she would never leave you. That should solve all of your problems for the trust issue that you have with her. As for actually deciding to accept her offer it is your choice but look at this from a business perspective is my best advice for you here."

"Thanks," said Harry. "Now… GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM!"

Moody just chuckled at this before disappearing with a pop.

Harry just went back and lay down on the bed and began to analyze the situation the way Moody suggested. For negatives the only thing that he could really see would be the fact that he would need multiple wives. Yes if he married Narcissa it would put her in danger but not much more because by her no longer being married to Lucius it made her a priority to either have remarried to Lucius so that she would be kept quiet or to have her killed.

The age difference didn't really concern Harry because he knew that witches and wizards lived longer then muggles. Yes she might be old enough to be his mom, but from what the Black family tree said about her she was had Draco rather young so she wasn't as old as she could have been.

As Harry just went through his thoughts the list of positives from the marriage started to build up by a large amount. The more important facts were that he would be a legal adult, the Black fortune would stay away from Voldemort, which is what Sirius would have wanted, and he could learn a lot from this woman. This was an excellent chance to learn things that he would need in order to survive.

"Hell if I defeat him and live I will need to know a lot about dealing with the public as well as other things about the wizarding world if I hope to have children," said Harry. "I will not allow them to have the same disadvantages that I had to suffer through for so long."

This thought led him back to when he asked Narcissa about them having children. She probably would want to have at least another child even if she wouldn't admit to this fact. He wasn't against having children but he would rather wait a little while before having kids. It would be enough of a shock to be married so having a child he would have to talk to her about waiting a little while at the least so that he could get comfortable with the idea.

"The way I'm thinking here it seems like I have already decided." Then a small voice inside Harry's head says, 'But haven't you already? I mean there is really only one option here is there not?'

"Shit."

Pondering his thoughts over for about another hour and a half Harry just stayed in the room thinking over his decision from every angle he could think possible.

Then Cosmo, the house elf, appeared with a pop and said, "Mistress Narcissa is expecting you down for dinner. She says that I am to show you the way and that she is willing to answer any questions that you might have."

"Thanks," said Harry as he sat up and began to follow the house elf.

The two made their way through the large town house towards the kitchen. When Harry entered he saw Narcissa already seated with a glass of wine in front of her as well as a small spread of food laid out on the table. She motioned for him to take a seat across from her.

"As I'm sure that Cosmo already told you I am willing to answer any questions that you might have," said Narcissa. "That is if you need them but I will tell you this once again think carefully about this decision because it does affect your life, and I have already thought about how it would affect my life so you need not concern yourself with any thoughts that I might not know what I am getting myself into if you choose to take me as a wife of yours."

"Ok," said Harry. "I have more of a couple of general questions for you more then anything else."

"Alright proceed," said Narcissa as she began to place food on her plate.

"First how old are you? I don't mean to sound rude but I mean you are old enough to be my mom so it would be kind of logical to ask just to see how much of an age difference we would have if I choose to marry you," said Harry as respectfully as he could manage.

"That will not be a problem," said Narcissa. "You see if you choose to marry me there is an extremely rare potion that I would take to decrease the age difference. Right now I am 33, I had Draco very young so that Lucius could mold him and fade me out of Draco's life while I was finishing my education."

"This potion may only be taken once by a person or it will kill them no matter how long ago it has been used by that person. It is very expensive, and there are no more known makers of this in the world. It would decrease my age by ten years so that I would be 23 instead of 33."

"Ok," said Harry. 'So the age difference won't be that big of a deal.' Harry mused before moving onto his next question.

"In order to make a decision one way or the other about this marriage I need to know your stance on the whole purity of blood issue."

"Blood purity is something for ignorant fools as I have come to discover," said Narcissa. "If pureblood wizards and witches continue their beliefs, all witches and wizards will become a thing of the past through either to many squibs or the inability to produce progeny. Don't worry I have checked the Potters and Blacks are not related."

Seeing Harry's shocked face she continued, "I take everything seriously and research things carefully. It took a while for me to realize the whole blood issue that I was raised on was wrong but realize it I did. The wizarding world needs to marry muggleborns, people from other countries, and even a few magical creatures in order to survive and expand the population."

"O," was all that Harry could say in response to these words coming from her mouth.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he realized he really didn't know that much about her but there would be plenty of time for that later if she accepted the witch's oath. "Ok this final thing that I have to ask is would you be willing to take a two part witch's oath on your magic guaranteeing that you would never betray me to Voldemort or his followers consciously and that you would never leave me?"

"Yes, if that is what it would take for you to make your decision here I will do it right now if you wish," said Narcissa.

"Good," said Harry who let out a small smile upon hearing these words. "I will have you know that after dinner then you will perform this oath if you wish to be my wife."

Narcissa made no outward sign of being shocked at these words but on the inside she couldn't believe that he had already made a decision.

"That will be fine," said Narcissa. "Now hurry up and eat, we are going to have several things to discuss tonight about the future."

**Author's Note: Longest chapter so far for the story. I am hoping to start producing decent length chapters from now on that are around three thousand words or so but we will see depending on where the plot goes from here. To answer any questions about their wedding it will be a very quiet affair and basically no one in the outside the people that they choose to tell and the goblins will know that they are married. Yes papers will be at the ministry of their marriage but they will be filed discreetly due to Narcissa's connections. This will make it so they will have some privacy.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four** Plots and Discussions

The two of them finished dinner in an awkward silence before Harry got up and followed Narcissa out of the room. She sat down in the same chair as she was using earlier that day, which Harry took as the sign that some more discussions were meant to take place.

"Alright we need to talk about a couple of things since I know that we are going to be married," said Narcissa. "First I want to ask if you have heard of the art of Occulemency."

"Yeah," said Harry bitterly thinking about his time with Snape and his attempts to learn. "I have heard of it and that greasy haired arse Snape tried to teach me it last year."

"Well that at least saves me the trouble of explaining what it is to you then," said Narcissa.

Harry found it slightly strange how she was able to hide all her emotions so well and wondered if this might have something to do with where the conversation was headed.

"The reason that I bring this up is because if we are to be married I am going to have to teach you this so that no one will be able to discover the fact that you are married to me unless you want to tell them," said Narcissa. "This will help to keep unwanted individuals from discovering this information."

"Now a secondary reason for my desire for you to learn this art is so that you will better control your emotions. Occulemency in part teaches an individual to separate emotions from thoughts so that they are kept behind your barriers, which makes keep your mind organized easier."

"Ok," said Harry. "Now you said that you are going to teach me this, but how do you know how to shield your mind from attacks?"

Narcissa actually smiled at these words. "All Black family females are taught this art in order to accomplish a few things. One of them is to make it so that even if we do not find our husbands to be desirable or worth of family secrets we are better able to survive as well as to not foolishly say things that they should not know about the Black family."

"You mean that Black family daughters would be married to people that they thought were not worthy of Black family secrets just because they were a pureblood?" asked Harry completely bewildered that they would keep certain secrets from their arranged husbands because they were not deemed worthy enough for the information yet they suitable candidates for husbands.

"Blood purity was more important to the past Black family heads, which will not be the case after you take over that position," said Narcissa knowing that these things did in fact sound odd.

"Alright you have mentioned this several times before about me being the head of the Black family in one manner or another," said Harry. "Now how is that possible if Sirius left his family when he was sixteen?"

"Well it is because he became sixteen first off," said Narcissa. "That meant that no matter what his mother tried she could not kick him out of inheriting that Black family fortune and status of being the head of the Black family. This is especially true after his brother, my other cousin, Regealus died."

Harry was now just plain confused he knew that Sirius had inherited a large amount of money from his uncle but he had no clue that technically Sirius had access to all of the Black family's assets.

"No matter what my aunt would have liked when Regealus died it automatically made it so that Sirius would become head of the Black family when she passed away because he was closest of kin no matter how she tried to deny this from happening."

"You mean that once you and I are… married I will have all of the Black family's assets?"

Narcissa just nodded her head before saying, "As well as access to all of the Potter family's assets. If you were not informed that was probably because it was up to Sirius to tell you about it, but never bothered because there were more important things to deal with at the time and he didn't want anyone to be able to steal from you."

Harry's head was suffering from an information overload. He still had more money left to him by his parents then the one vault he already possessed? "How… how much money did my parents leave me?"

"To be honest no one other then your parents knows how much money you have. The Potter family was always wealthy but no one knows the real extent of their wealth because they never flaunted it around or used it to get what they wanted," said Narcissa. "Money was far less important to them then other values that they held close to them. Eventually we will be able to find out how much money you have but that will have to wait a while because there are more important things to deal with then how wealthy you are at the moment."

"Aren't we getting a little off topic here?" asked Harry. "I mean aren't you supposed to be telling me about why I need to keep my thoughts and knowledge of our marriage from others. Seriously who would be able to go through my mind to discover that fact without me knowing?"

"Yes you are right," said Narcissa. "There is one person at the very least who would be able to discover that you are married, and that is an invasion of your privacy. I am of course speaking of Dumbledore. If you were wondering how he always seems to know more then he should it is because he uses a very subtle form of legillems. He doesn't necessarily go into your mind but he reads through your surface thoughts and can basically figure out what took place without you knowing."

"So… in order for him not to discover that we are married without one of us telling him I need to learn Occulemency," said Harry.

"Yes," said Narcissa. "Now he won't show that he can't do this to you anymore but that just means that he will ask you more questions."

Harry just nodded his head while think 'So that is how he seemed to know so much about what happened to me at school.'

To Narcissa it looked like Harry was starting to get mad so she decided to put an end to it quickly, "Look he doesn't do that to manipulate you because he does that to everybody of his students in order to save time. As for his other manipulations to you we are going to need to have a long talk about that before school begins."

"Fine," said Harry even though he didn't know what there was to talk about concerning the headmaster and his manipulations. "Now you told me why I need to learn Occulemency and about how I will need at least two wives, but how am I supposed to get a girlfriend if I have no clue what to do when I'm on a date with them?"

"That is one of the things that I will be teaching you this summer," said Narcissa with a gleam in her eye. "Along with Occulemency I will teach you how to dance, which will be needed, how to run your finances, and how to be a perfect gentleman."

"Wish I knew that last year," said Harry under his breath.

However Narcissa heard this and asked with a quirked eyebrow, "Why is that?"

"Well… um I think I should start from the beginning," said Harry. He then slowly proceeded to tell her the full details about him and Cho from the beginning of the year to the end of the year train ride. Harry wasn't really that comfortable revealing all this information to her considering they didn't really know each other but on the other hand he figured that if he was going to take her as his wife he would have to start telling her some things and this wasn't a bad place to start.

"Ok, this shouldn't be too hard to fix once you go back to school," said Narcissa. "From what you told me even if you don't fancy her anymore she could be a good friend and would probably be willing to help you. It sounds like last year she didn't really have that many friends and when you exploded on her close friend it hurt her. That is why she didn't really talk to you at the end of the year."

"Now you do need to apologize for her about that and start by stating a few simple facts. First she was your first girlfriend so you really didn't know how to act around her. Next state that even though she was your first girlfriend you should have acted better but she has to realize that you were under more stress then she was because of seeing her old boyfriend die in front of you while you lived and other things that were stressing you to a breaking point."

"Ok that sounds very simple," said Harry. "Now I know this is going to sound stupid but why should I want her close to me?"

Narcissa sighed 'Evidently I have more work to do with him then I thought' then she turned to Harry and said, "She lost someone and so have you. You both know about the realities of war and that is more then most people your age can say. Also she is a Ravenclaw and with her knowledge and popularity it could help you out a lot at school. There is also a legitimate reason that you may not like."

"You seem to look at things from a standpoint where as you figure out how much you will gain," said Harry dryly. "Now what exactly is this legitimate reason that I may not like?"

"I wasn't known as a Slytherin that you didn't want to cross for nothing," said Narcissa calmly. "The Diggory boy who you saw die at the end of the TriWizard Tournament was her boyfriend, and since she lost him she has not been the same. You can protect her and help to make sure that she doesn't end up in any situation that she would never have been in if he had not died.."

"Ok," said Harry as he looked down at his hands. "I understand your reasoning behind that and well I think it would be a way to honor his memory at the least."

"That would be an honorable thing for you to do and would show that you are maturing and that you still care about other people," said Narcissa. "Unfortunately you will also show that you can be ruthless in this war and in order to achieve this you are probably going to have to take over control of the Order as well as get more people at school to follow you and help."

"How in the bloody hell am I supposed to gain leadership over the order when I'm not even a member? I mean I won't even be at headquarters this summer to talk to any of the order members and how is it likely that they will follow me of all people?" asked Harry. To say the least he couldn't comprehend how there was any way to gain control of the Order.

"Actually that will mean even less of a problem," stated Narcissa. "All that needs to be informed to the members is that you are the only one who will be able to defeat the dark lord and the fact that Dumbledore has known this for a while but not properly prepared you for this fate and has manipulated your circumstances."

"And just how do you propose that I do this? I mean in case you haven't forgotten I will be here the rest of the summer and at school during the rest of the year," said Harry as he was starting to get angry.

"Have your guards that helped Remus help you talk to the order members… well most of them," said Narcissa. "There are a few who would not follow you but as long as you have the majority it would not matter. This would also be a chance to give the headmaster a taste of the same potion that he brews towards other such as you, by taking away his decisions."

"Alright," said Harry as his anger died away seeing the logic in her plan. "Now could we please talk about anything else?"

"That is fine, considering we do need to discuss when this wedding is going to take place," said Narcissa. "The sooner the better we can have it as soon as tomorrow night to within a week."

"Why so quickly?" asked Harry.

"Simple it makes it so that there is no chance of it being interfered with and then we can get to Diagon Alley before most people would to claim your inheritance and the Black family fortune."

"Fine," said Harry. "I take it that you want this to be a quiet ceremony and that is a reason that you are not concerned about rushing this wedding."

"Very good Harry, I do not care about this being quiet because I already had the large ceremony for my arranged marriage." Narcissa then looked down at her watch and realized that it was beginning to get late. "Not to change the conversation so quickly but earlier at dinner you mentioned me taking a witch's oath. I am not backing out of the oath but I want to change the wording. Basically I want it to say that I will never consciously betray you to anyone and that I will be faithful to you as soon as our marriage is consummated."

"Consummated," said Harry his eyes widening visibly. "Why then?"

"Because we can use magic it will create a bond between us and it will allow that part of my oath to be true," said Narcissa. "Now how about I take this oath and you receive this oath now so that we can go to bed at a reasonable time tonight. All I have to do is place my wand tip to yours and say that oath and it will be completed."

"Ok," said Harry "but wait won't that count as underage magic on my part?"

Narcissa gave a small laugh before saying, "No it will not be it just a contract using our magical signature. It does not involve casting any spell on your part."

Harry just nodded his head, and within a few minutes with their wand tips touching each other Narcissa had stated her oath and a bright light flashed indicating that the oath was completed.

"This all seems to easy so far," said Harry as he placed his wand back in his special holster.

"Some things in life need to come easy for you Harry... especially after all you have been through," said Narcissa as she also put away her wand. "Now come on you are going to need rest if I am to begin with your lessons tomorrow."

"Ok," said Harry without any real argument that he could think of at the moment. He knew she was probably right that he would need a good nights sleep.

They had reached Harry's bedroom when Narcissa said, "I'll be in the master bedroom, which is right next to your bedroom. I had Cosmo do this so that if something came up you or I would not have to go that far to get a hold of the other person in the house."

"Um… ok," said Harry and he was about to enter his room when he heard something from Narcissa that made him gulp.

"Remember that you will only be in that room for a couple of days so don't get to comfortable," said Narcissa. "If you are going to be married you need to get used to having at least one woman in your bed with you."

Harry slowly recovered as he changed his clothes and climbed into the bed in his room. It didn't take that long for him to fall asleep, but unfortunately it would not be a full night's sleep for him.

Narcissa had just finished brushing her long blonde hair and was getting ready to climb into the large bed that in a few days she would be sharing with Harry. She then heard Harry begin to scream "Sirius! No he can't be gone! I'm so sorry Sirius it was all my fault please forgive me!"

"This isn't good," said Narcissa. "Well now I know why it looks like he hasn't gotten that much sleep lately."

She quickly ran out of the room and opened the door to Harry's room for the next couple of days. Narcissa saw him rolling in his bed still speaking. "Harry wake up… Harry you need to wake up."

It took several minutes before Harry finally woke up and sat upright. He reached over and grabbed his glasses before realizing that Narcissa was in the room. "Sorry… I didn't mean to wake you up."

"That isn't what bothers me," said Narcissa slowly. "It was more the fact of what you were saying that had me bothered. From what I could tell you blame yourself for Sirius' death. Why would you think that?"

"Because it was my fault he was there in the first place… if I hadn't been so reckless he wouldn't have been there in the first place and he never would have needed to try and come save me," said Harry bitterly.

"Look at this logically Harry," said Narcissa. She knew most of what happened that night and wasn't to surprised that Harry blamed himself. "You went to the ministry thinking that there was no other way to save Sirius even if it meant your own death. When Sirius discovered that you went to the ministry he followed with the same idea in his mind. Both of you cared more about the each other's live that you would risk your own lives in order to save the other. It shows how much you both cared about each other so much that even death meant nothing so long as the other person was safe."

"Yeah," said Harry miserably "but what is your point here?"

"What I'm trying to say is that he wouldn't want you to think that his death was your fault… you took an action given the best information you had and then he took his own life into account to make sure that you were safe," said Narcissa. I bet that you wouldn't want him to blame himself if you died that night and I know that he would tell you to get off your arse and stop thinking that it is your fault."

He knew that she was right and he couldn't argue but it still didn't change the fact that Sirius was gone forever. "You can go back to bed I don't think I'll be falling asleep anytime soon and there is no sense keeping you up as well."

"No Harry, I'm staying here to make sure that you fall asleep again tonight," said Narcissa firmly. "Sleep is something that everyone needs and you are no different so lay down, while I climb in behind you and wait till you fall asleep. Don't think about me in the bed because you already know that you are going to have to get used to the fact."

Harry just nodded his head and lay back down as Narcissa, his soon to be wife, climbed into the bed behind him. Slowly he began to drift off into a sleep, while vaguely aware that she had pulled herself up behind him while wrapping an arm around his waist. Just feeling her presence next to him was somehow comforting enough and without another thought in his head Harry fell asleep next to Narcissa, who had fallen asleep just before him.

**Author's Note: Sorry about the confusion with Narcissa's age in the last chapter. She is 33 and will become 23. I know that the de-aging potion has been used in several other stories but I thought that I would add the little thing about how using more then one of them would kill the person no matter what otherwise I mean basically a person could live as long as they wanted to if they had enough gold or the formula to brew the potion.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five** – Lessons and Actions begin

Harry awoke the next morning with a warm feeling around him. He hadn't gotten that good a sleep since… well to be honest he couldn't remember the last time that he got such a good nights sleep. Wondering why he felt so warm Harry rolled over to his other side to see Narcissa waking up as well.

'I guess she it took longer to fall asleep then I expected,' mused Harry as he watched her open her eyes. Her next action however completely got rid of any remaining sleep he might have felt when she leaned over and gave him a soft, slow kiss.

All Harry could do was just laid in the bed in complete shock before Narcissa broke the kiss. "Thought that I would get used to kissing you since we are going to be married soon enough," said Narcissa as a smirk broke across her face.

"Now come on get up we have a lot of things to do today and the less time we waste the better. Use the shower in your adjoining bathroom while I go back to the master bedroom and use that one."

Narcissa climbed out of bed and left for the master bedroom to get cleaned and changed, while Harry went into his adjoining bathroom to shower. It didn't take long for Harry to shower and dress before heading doe to the kitchen for some breakfast. He figured that Narcissa wouldn't mind if he didn't wait for her only because he had no clue how long it would take for her to get ready

Harry spent the whole time from when Narcissa left the room to when he arrived in the kitchen looking over his talks with Narcissa last night. "Shit I can't tell the people in the order about my real position in the war. I mean it would put to many people at risk. Also how the hell do I know that there isn't another spy in the Order either it has happened before. Making a mistake like that could cost another persons life and if I can prevent this I will be dammed if I sit in the side."

While Harry began to place some food onto his plate, Narcissa walked into the room and took a seat across from him. She pulled out several vials of potions and slid them across the table towards Harry, who raised a questioning eyebrow. "Those are nourishment potions. They should help so that you will be able to grow to your proper height if you had a normal diet all these years. "

Harry dropped his fork hearing this from her. "You mean that I will actually be able to grow to the height that I'm supposed to even after all those years at the Dursleys?" I mean I'm grateful but I didn't think that it would be possible for that to happen."

"Yes it is possible," said Narcissa as she grabbed some croissants. "I would have gotten you something to fix your eyesight but that could cause too many inquires that you don't want. Now take those while you eat. The food will help to get rid of the taste."

Harry just nodded his head before suspiciously smelling the potion in front of him. It seemed okay and because of the witch's oath that Narcissa had taken last night he figured that it would be okay.

After quickly downing the first vial he had to agree that he was glad to have food in front of him to change the taste.

After he had finished drinking the nourishment potions and the food in front of him, Narcissa asked, "Are you ready to begin your Occulemency lessons?"

"Not yet. I want to talk about couple of things from last night first," said Harry. Without waiting for a response he continued by saying, "You mentioned several things that you wanted to teach me but most of them seemed to have nothing covering in magic. What exactly is the reason for that, if there is any reason for no magical training?"

"It is rather simple. Most of the things that I decided on are a necessity because of marriage and your place in the world, but the magical training is your decision about how much we should do and what to cover. I will say this though if you go back to school performing magic in most subjects at a higher level then you showed last year it will look suspicious and people will question you about these things. You could always hide the fact that you would have a larger knowledge and skill level but that is your decision and I do not want to take away all of your choices," said Narcissa. "Now is there anything else that you want to say before we begin your lessons?"

"Yes… last night you told me that I should let the Order know about my position in the war. How in the hell can I do that when I know that I would willingly be putting others at a large risk and when I don't even know if there is a spy in the Order as well," said Harry with a slight edge in his voice.

"You only need to say a few small things," said Narcissa. She knew that he would say something like this she just wasn't sure when he would. "First that the dark lord will not stop until you are killed, second like it or not you are an important person in the wizarding world, and finally you will do anything possible to save as many lives and respect everybody as possible, while trying to end this war as soon as possible. That is all that you need to tell the Order and nothing more?"

"Alright that sounds fine…," said Harry as he began to stand. "So I take it that since I have no more questions that it is time for my lessons."

"Yes," said Narcissa "now let us go into the library so that we can begin your lesson. We will basically concentrate on Occulemency this morning and work some other stuff this afternoon."

Harry followed her into the room before she motioned for him to sit on the floor. He sat down crossing his legs and looking forward as she sat down in front of him on a cushion.

"Now the first thing you need to learn is how to relax and clear your mind. The first thing that you need to learn to do is to learn not to concentrate on any thoughts or feeling in particular," said Narcissa. "This will sort of give you a sense that your mind is empty and buy you time to repel the attack."

This didn't sound so bad to Harry. He began to follow her instructions and thought about nothing just letting his mind drift off until he thought of nothing. Eventually though he was brought back to a state of thought and said, "That can't be all there is to this. I mean it seems too simple to be the whole thing."

"That is just the first step Harry as I hinted to before you started. The next step is to work on two things. The first one is to separate all feelings from your memories. It makes it so that it is harder for anyone to find something specific. Of course this is only until you are able to erect your own mental barriers," said Narcissa. "Think of these barriers as walls that separate rooms. Over time you will be able to increase their strength but it will take a lot of time because creating these walls requires a lot of mental energy. That is the purpose of the first thing that we did, understand?"

"Yeah…," said Harry. He then added softly, "Maybe if Snape had explained it like this before I would have succeeded."

"Severus never should have been teaching you in the first place," said Narcissa. "His biased grudge against your father has carried over to you and he would probably never be able to let go that you are James' son and teach you properly. Severus' hatred of your father was known throughout the school and his reaction to your father, who was probably the most respected person in the school, along with his inability to learn that people and things change led him to join the dark lord."

"That information right there just helps to prove that I am going to benefit just as much as you are by this marriage," said Harry.

Narcissa just smiled at these words and said, "Alright come on back to work you go. I'll be here the whole time if you have any questions. What I want to do is work on my plan for your afternoon lessons. Just make sure you work on separating your feelings from your memories and maybe begin with creating barriers around your thoughts and memories."

"Um… how would I create these barriers?" asked Harry.

"It is sort of like using your will power to create a wall from other people," said Narcissa. "In a sense you are basically mentally working on dividing your mind into different areas. Almost like if you were physically building a wall."

"Ok," said Harry after Narcissa finished telling him something that was understandable even if a little vague. He reckoned that she wanted him to sort of figure out how to make his barriers somewhat on his own more so that way he would grow instead of to hinder him.

The two of them sat in the library working on their own separate things. Narcissa had now moved to a chair and was writing thins out for her afternoon lessons on parchment, while Harry worked on taking his emotion away from the prophecy and his other memories that he wouldn't want to be discovered

Eventually Harry felt a gentle shake to his shoulders as a signal that it was time for something else. "What time is it?"

"Almost lunch time so I figured that I should get you to stop so you could get some food into you before your other lessons," said Narcissa.

"Ok…," said Harry as he stood up and stretched. "You still haven't told me what exactly we are going to be doing this afternoon."

"You'll just have to wait and see, now come on no more waiting," said Narcissa as she proceeded to leave the room.

A plate with sandwiches was already on the table waiting when Harry reached the kitchen. He sat down before speaking, "Um… I never did ask this morning about the potions. How long exactly will they take to work?"

"By the end of the summer you will probably grow six inches or so," said Narcissa. "What the potions did was to speed up the physical maturation of the body slightly as well as to make sure that it does mature properly, which means that you are going to be a lot hungrier then normal for the summer. Your body will stop maturing so fast by the end of the summer and then we will have Madam Malkin come over for a private fitting so that way you do not have to bother dealing with being seen in Diagon Alley and risked being spotted by someone who would tell Dumbledore. It also ensures that I can select a proper wardrobe for you without anyone knowing that we are in fact married."

Harry just rolled his eyes hearing that he would be getting a whole new wardrobe. He knew that it would be necessary if he was going to be growing something around six inches over the summer but it still didn't mean that he had to like the fact.

"We have some actions that we need to discuss about tomorrow though," said Narcissa carefully. "As you know earlier we discussed that if you met my sister, Bellatrix, again you would try to capture her so that I could keep her out of Azkaban in an attempt to save her as well as make her realize what she has done."

"Yes but what exactly does this have to do with tomorrow?" asked Harry. "I mean I can't exactly use magic and as far as I know nothing is going on tomorrow." He then stopped as reality hit him/

Narcissa watched as realization seemed to hit Harry. "That means that we would have the wedding early tomorrow and I would take the de-aging potion tonight."

"You couldn't have told me earlier! I thought that you had no clue when you would see your sister next so how could you know that you are going to see her tomorrow all of the sudden?"

"She contacted me, while you were practicing this morning and do not bother to ask because that is a secret that is between us and no one else," said Narcissa in a tone that told Harry that there was no room for questioning.

"Fine… don't tell me how you can communicate with her but she will be alone right?" asked Harry.

When Narcissa nodded a yes Harry continued by saying, "Good because if anyone else came with her we would be in some real trouble right now. I can be invisible when she arrives but you need to tell me where I should be in order to stun her so that we can take away her wand and restrain her before you talk to her about what exactly is going on here."

"How could you be invisible? I mean I don't think there are any charms that could do that for you and it's not like you have an invisibility cloak…" Narcissa trailed off realizing that Harry actually did have an invisibility cloak.

"I'd say that by the widening of your eyes that you figured out that I do have an invisibility cloak," said an amused Harry. "Now as much as I am enjoying having the upper hand here even if it is for a moment don't you have some things to teach me this afternoon?"

"Yes… it is time that I teach you how to act from this point forward. You need to learn to project yourself with a sort of power, not arrogant, but some one who knows exactly who they are and their place in the world," said Narcissa. "Part of projecting the right image for you will occur later this summer when we buy your wardrobe, but the other thing we need to have happen is that we need to get the right attitude ingrained into your personality."

"What do you mean that you need me to have the right attitude," said Harry. "I don't really want to be forced to change my attitude just because you think it will project the right image."

"We are not going to change your true beliefs Harry," said Narcissa calmly. "All we are going to do is make it so that the people that you don't like or need to learn to respect you will learn not to mess with you with out the need for anything physical to take place."

"So I'll be arrogant like your son," said Harry.

"No… like I said before the way that you carry yourself will demand respect," said Narcissa. "You will show that you know that you are an important person in the wizarding world and that as the head of two important families you should not be talked down to as some child. The look that you present will suggest that you are capable of taking care of yourself and that if it comes down to it you are not a person to be messed with politically, financially, physically, and magically. Understood?"

Harry just nodded his head as Narcissa finished her speech.

"In essence I intend to make you into what my mother and aunt thought that Lucius would be even though he never came close to that in any regards," said Narcissa. "He believed that he was above everyone and that his name alone entitled him to everything. What you will show is that you deserve respect not because of your name or heritage necessarily but because you of what you have accomplished, what you could accomplish, and most importantly because you are powerful."

"I'm not powerful… I mean if I was won't I have better grades in school, hell I have problems with some of the spells that I do in school," scoffed Harry.

"That won't be a problem after tomorrow," said Narcissa. She knew that Harry would have clue as to what she was implying so she decided to continue. "You see every child that buys a wand has a suppressor placed on them through the wand. Now everyone's magical core reacts differently to the suppressor and yours reacted so that you would have problems with some spells. Now once that child reaches 17 in the wizarding world or gets married and becomes an adult the suppression spell is cancelled and that person is allowed to access their true power. I know that you were able to conjure a patronus during your third year because my son wrote home asking what spell it was that charged down at him from your wand."

"You mean he actually bothered to write home about that," asked Harry in a disbelieving voice.

"Yes… I found it quite amusing when he described a silver stag charging down on him," said Narcissa. "But we are getting off track. We need to begin with you learning how to walk around for your first adjustment. The rest will take more time but I thought that you should start with something simple."

"Okay," said Harry as he looked at her wondering what exactly he was going to have to change about how he walked?

"When you are just walking around make sure that you are standing to your full height, which will be more impressive after the summer, keep your shoulders square, and look straight out," said Narcissa.

"Don't I already do that?"

"No… at least not since I have seen you," explained Narcissa. "You are slightly slumped in posture with your shoulders slumped forward. That is not an impressive demeanor especially for someone who banished the dark lord all those years ago."

Harry just rolled his eyes at this but didn't say anything hoping to avoid a lecture or at least some comment about this but unfortunately Narcissa caught the eye roll.

"Look I know it seems unimportant but as I said before it helps to show that you do not fear anyone and it makes you look like the important person that you are and do not try and tell me that you are not important," said Narcissa in a firm voice.

"Is this all that we are going to be doing this afternoon? You telling me how to walk around and that sort of thing?" asked Harry.

"No… I'm going to begin teach you how to dance," said Narcissa with a smile on her face.

The two spent the rest of the afternoon with Narcissa showing him several different styles of dances that would be required of him when he attended different functions for various things. Harry didn't really like the fact that he would have to attend different balls and functions and be expected to dance, but then again after the Yule Ball he realized that being able to dance would probably be a good thing because it would most likely make his date happy with him.

The two were eating dinner when Harry asked, "What am I supposed to do after dinner tonight? I mean is there anything in particular that you think I need to do or…"

Narcissa just smiled, "You can do whatever you want tonight. Just remember to practice some Occulemency before sleep. It will give you a chance to relax before tomorrow because we are going to have a busy day with a morning wedding, heading to Gringotts, and dealing with my sister."

"O the joy…," commented Harry dryly. "I think I'm going to die of excitement."

"Well… maybe after tomorrow night," said Narcissa. "Remember this is your last night without a wife and most likely the last night you will ever be sleeping alone."

Hearing these words Harry put down his fork and said, "I'm not hungry anymore I think I'm going to go and do some reading."

Narcissa just watched before she took the de-aging potion and went to her room so as to get enough sleep for tomorrow. It was going to be a busy and important day after all.

**Author's note: Thank you for all your reviews that I have received so far with the story. My writing time has been limited with my work schedule however I will keep working on the story even after HBP comes out on the 16th. As for the other fic that I had, I removed it because I wasn't to happy with a lot of the plot so I might rework it but it will take some time and it will probably change from Blaise to Daphne seeing as how JKR said that Blaise is a guy. Don't get me wrong I like femBlaise fics but I would rather have the fics that I write stick to the proper gender for a character.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six** – Things Do Not Always go as planned Part 1

Harry awoke the next morning and rolled into the shower with out as much as a thought.

He was in the process of toweling off when it hit him all at once, "I'm getting married today and it won't be the only time!"

Now fully alert Harry dressed quickly in an attempt to occupy himself with other things then the thought of actually having to be married _at least _twice. "Just one more bloody thing that makes me unique, even in the muggle world this is unique. Now I just hope that I can keep this quiet until I am ready to reveal the fact. Like that will ever happen."

Upon entering the kitchen Cosmo appeared with a bundle in his hands. "Mistress tells Cosmo to have Master Harry put these on after he has finished eating his breakfast. Mistress also gives permission for Cosmo to use own magic to force Master Harry to wear these clothes for today."

"Great," muttered Harry as he sat down before turning to the elf. "What exactly is it that she is going to be having me wear Cosmo?"

Hearing these words Cosmo levitated a set of very impressive black robes out of the bag. "Mistress says that these will give Master Harry the appropriate look for the ceremony and when the two of you go to the bank sir."

Harry just rolled his eyes at these words and then decided to ask if they would even fit him. "How are they supposed to fit me Cosmo when she never took me to get fitted for them?"

"Mistress tells Cosmo that robes are charmed and will adjust after Master puts them on to himself. Mistress also says to tell sir that he is to hurry up because she wants to be able calm sir down before meetings later today."

"Thanks," said Harry as he began to eat the plate that the elf had placed in front of him while talking to Harry. It would take a lot more then a little luck for Harry to be calm when Bellatrix would arrive later today. Having the murderer of his godfather in his power was going to be a tempting thought and Harry knew that it would take self restraint for him not to do anything stupid.

Quickly finishing his sausage, eggs, and toast Harry got up and went to the room that he slept in the night before and changed into the robes that Narcissa wanted him to wear for the day.

Almost immediately Harry felt the robes adjust to him and change to fit properly. He had never felt robes like these before. They felt incredible and he had to admit that they were definitely something that he could get used to wearing.

After seeing that there was a pair of black shoes in the room that were probably also for him he put them on and felt them also change to fit his feet perfectly.

The clothes conforming to him perfectly Harry looked into the mirror that hung on the backside of the door. At his appearance he gave a small laugh before saying to himself, "Even with these new clothes I still can't escape my old look completely. These glasses are the only thing on me now that remind me of my old life… but I guess there isn't really anything that I can do about that right now anyways."

Shaking his head he stepped out of his room and headed downstairs where he saw Narcissa waiting for him looking absolutely stunning. "You look… you look… just wow." He could believe that in just a short time this beautiful woman standing in front of him would be his wife. Although the changes from the potion on her body weren't much he could still notice some changes mostly in her face. The lines from a hard life, where surviving was the most important thing, were taken away leaving a softer face.

"Thank you. You look very handsome yourself with these new robes, but just imagine how much different you will look after a summer of good eating and a healthy growth spurt. Now you just need one more thing to complete the new look, but that can wait till after the ceremony."

Harry just nodded as Narcissa took his hand and led him to a room that he didn't remember visiting before. Inside was the official for the marriage ceremony, someone that looked like they were from the ministry, Tonks, and Kingsley.

"What are you two doing here?" asked Harry when he saw Tonks and Kingsley in the room.

Tonks just smiled and said, "Well Kingsley was on guard duty today and when I heard yesterday that you were going to be married well… I just had to be here for this."

"Great… no way that I would be able to completely avoid someone taking a shot at me, but just remember you try after this and I can and will hex your arse," said Harry.

Kingsley just chuckled at this and said, "Now that is something I would like to see, but just remember Harry if there is anything that you want to learn for spell work this summer let us know because we would be glad to help you out in anyway that we can."

"Noted… now can we get this over with I'm already nervous enough and that was before I knew that you two would be here," said Harry.

"Now dear niece if you are finished having fun with my soon to be husband we can get this over with as he so eloquently put just now," said Narcissa giving a smile. "Come on Harry this will be over before you know it."

And she was right what seemed like a minute or two he, Harry Potter, had a wife. His mind seemed to be elsewhere as he proceeded through the ceremony and then without realizing it he was kissing Narcissa.

"See… that wasn't so bad now was it Harry," said Narcissa. "Now for that last thing that would complete your new look. Nymph, dear, could you bring over what I had you buy yesterday afternoon?"

"Fine," said Tonks as she pulled out a box from a pocket on the inside of her robes. "But would you stop calling me that blasted name! I know you are my Aunt and all but it still doesn't mean that I won't curse you from here to Hogwarts and back again."

Narcissa just laughed at her niece before taking the box and handing to her husband.

Harry just looked at the box incredulously before opening it to see what exactly was inside.

What he saw was not what he had expected. Inside were new glasses with slim gold frames that would definitely complete his new impressive look. Carefully he took them out of the case and replaced his old ones with his new set. Almost immediately after he put the glasses on he felt a slight tingling sensation. "Was that supposed to happen?"

Narcissa just smiled at her husband before saying, "Yes Harry. That was just the glasses connecting to your magical signature. It means that they won't fall off and that no one will be able to take those glasses off without your consent, and that means magically or by force."

"Well at least I won't have to worry about a bludger knocking them off of me in Quiditch anymore," said Harry with a small chuckle.

"Not like you would need it anyways," said Narcissa. "I mean from what I have heard from my son you are probably one of the best fliers in Hogwarts history. Well that is what I gleamed from all his complaining."

"Ahh yes… my new step son. It is going to be priceless when he finds out that I am now married to his mom," said Harry.

"You know Harry this means that if you get into a fight at school with him you could just say that you are disciplining him and that it is a family matter," said Tonks with a laugh. "I mean that can't do anything if you are acting in your legal capacity now can they."

"I'm not revealing that I am married to Narcissa just to escape punishment," said Harry with a scowl. "I'd rather be able to release information about my own life to who I choose, when I choose."

"Exactly the way it should be," said Narcissa as she wrapped an arm around his waist. "Never give away an advantage when you have one until it gives you the most gain possible. Now come on we need to get to Diagon Alley."

"This early?" asked Harry. "I know we have to go to Gringotts but I didn't think that we would need this much time to assert my new position in the community."

"It won't but I want to stop by Ollivander's shop before," said Narcissa calmly. "If Kingsley will help us here by saying that your old wand was stolen we can buy you a custom built one from him."

"That shouldn't be a problem, but why does Harry need a new wand anyways?" asked Kingsley clearly interested. "I mean I know that he is basically a walking target but why does he need a second wand, let alone a custom built one?"

"Basically because one it will give him the element of surprise if he has a second wand and it is a tradition for members of the Black family to have a wand custom made for them when they become an adult," said Narcissa. "It ensures that he will have a wand that is completely compatible with his magic without the need for years of practice with the original wand."

"Then why don't most people do this," asked Harry. "I mean if it helps people with their magic wouldn't it make more sense for everyone to have a custom wand?"

"Yes it would make more sense but… most people don't know about that fact and then it is also expensive to have a custom built wand," said Narcissa. "Alright enough talk we need to get moving. Now Harry hold on to my waist I want to apparate both of us to the alley right behind the Leaky Cauldron."

Harry didn't have a chance to do anything besides wrap his arm around his wife's waist before he felt himself be compressed. A moment later he felt his feet hit some pavement as he was standing outside in the alley behind the Leaky Cauldron.

Harry removed his arm from Narcissa's waist as she did the same and drew her wand out, but from where she drew out her wand Harry didn't know.

As she tapped the brink to open up the passage to Diagon Alley she spoke, "Now be careful and try not to appear to out of place because the last thing that we both want is something to let Dumbledore know that you were here, okay?"

"Yeah… just raise the hood on your cloak so that people don't know who it is with me, that is just in case anyone recognizes me," said Harry in a low voice.

"I know, now come on the sooner we get to Ollivander's the better. Don't worry about Kingsley will meet us in the shop. There is a special apparition point for aurors that they are keyed into when they join the ministry, but only if the are high enough up the chain of command which he is by the way."

Harry just nodded his head as the two of them carefully made their way into the wand makers shop and waited for Mr. Ollivander to make his appearance.

"Mr. Potter what a pleasant surprise. I do hope that nothing is wrong with the wand that I sold you when you first came to my shop."

"Well you see…," said Harry but he was interrupted as Kingsley entered the shop.

"Good you are already here Harry. Now the reason Mr. Potter is here is that his wand has been stolen and that he is in need of a new one," said Kingsley calmly. "As a ministry representative I am allowing Mr. Potter to purchase a new wand."

"Ahh what a shame," said Mr. Ollivander with a twinkle in his eye as if he knew that this was not the case but he didn't say anything. "Well we shall begin looking for a new wand soon but may I ask why you are here Narcissa? I wouldn't expect you to be here with Mr. Potter after all."

"Well since I am a Black again I need to make sure that the new head of the Black family has a custom built wand as is our family tradition. The reason that I am not contesting Harry being the head of the Black Family is because if I did it would make my son the family head and I do not want him in control of the Black Family."

Mr. Ollivander looked as if he knew this was not exactly the whole reason but let this slide and said, "Well as I seem to remember Mr. Potter you were a tricky customer for your original wand so I think we shall start with some of my more unique cores that I have yet to place into a specific wand."

Harry just nodded at this remembering when he bought his first wand.

"Ok now follow me to the storage area and we can begin the process of making your custom wand."

With a wave of his own wand the sign on the door switched from open to closed as he led the small group to the back area of the store.

The room that they entered had boxes all around the room on shelves marked with all different types of materials used to make wands.

As Harry, Narcissa, and Kingsley looked around the room Mr. Ollivander began pulling down boxes that seemed to be containing the materials used in the core of every wand.

He opened the top of each of the boxes that he placed on a table toward the back of the room. Once Mr. Ollivander had selected enough core samples that he thought would be compatible with Harry he motioned for Harry to approach the table.

"Now Mr. Potter this is a little different then when you purchase a whole wand. What I want you to do is place your hand directly over each sample and see if you get a sense of belonging from the ingredient."

Harry nodded and began the process taking his time as he moved down the line. It was beginning to look like the ingredients wouldn't be compatible with Harry when he stopped two boxes from the end. The ingredients in the box just seemed to be a part of his magic.

"This box… whatever is inside is what I want for the core of my wand," said Harry firmly.

"I had a feeling that you might be the one for that core Mr. Potter. It is rare to have a composite core but then again you are a rare wizard."

"What exactly is the core going to be made from, I mean I didn't think that two magical cores could be compatible," said Narcissa.

"It is highly unusual but it is possible. Now the items that make up this core are the heartstrings of a Chinese Fireball that is wrapped by a Unicorn hair," said Mr. Ollivander. "It is an unusual combination but they do make a very powerful wand."

"Ok," said Harry as he took in this information. "Now what about the wood that will make up the wand and how do we determine the length?"

"For the length all I need to do is have you touch this piece of wood and I will cast a spell which will match your new wand core and your magical aura to an appropriate wand length, and as for the wood it is just another spell that checks the core to the woods in the shop."

"Alright that seems simple enough," said Harry.

Within ten minutes the process was finished and it was determined that Harry's new wand would be 11 and 3/8ths inches with a maple exterior.

"The price will be 25 galleons for the wand Mr. Potter and I should have it done with an hour or so if you would be able to pick it up at that time," said Mr. Ollivander.

"That sounds fine we will see you in an hour," said Harry as he followed Narcissa out of the room towards the front of the shop.

"An hour it is then Mr. and Mrs. Potter," said Ollivander.

Harry's eyes widened but Narcissa took his arm and pulled him out of the shop towards Gringotts.

"I'm not surprised that he knew," whispered Narcissa. "He has always been good at noticing what others do not bother to but he keeps quiet, which is the important matter."

Harry just nodded his head and let her lead him into the bank. Just after passing through the doors Harry remembered that Bill and Fleur both worked for Gringotts and if either of them recognized him here he didn't nee to explain why he was holding the hand of a beautiful older woman.

Silently his disentangled his hand from Narcissa's and placed it on the small of her back to guide her forward.

She raised and eyebrow at this action but did nothing further as they walked up to a free goblin.

Instead she just quietly talked to the goblin, who looked at Harry before nodding his head and motioning for them to follow him to a private room.

With the door closed the goblin spoke, "It is good to see you Mr. Potter. We were hoping that you would come some time soon as Albus Dumbledore had begun to put pressure on us to process the will of the late Sirius Black. Fortunately he was not written directly into the will so we could come up with believable reasons for not telling him when the will would be read. "

"Well there is also the fact that my lovely wife did pay you to keep the will from being read," said Harry. "Now could we hurry up with this, I need to get this over in a reasonable amount of time before anyone I know spots me here."

"Fine," said the goblin. "Just a couple of questions before reading through this will as well as a statement, which you need to hear though. Then I will be on my way to deal with other business, which will keep any suspicion off this being the reading of the late Mr. Black's will. I'll go with the statement first, what I have to say is that because of your position in the will and your marriage you will be the head of the Black family, the Potter family, and through the Black family you will also be the head of the Langston, O'Leary, and Andrews families. While you will not have need to wear the family signet rings other then your father's family line, it will mean that you will need a total of four wives because of old blood laws in the wizarding world."

Harry nodded his head at this information. He already knew that he would have at least two wives and the was a good chance of more due to the death of several lines over the years so he just took this in stride.

"You marriage to Ms. Black or as she could now be called Mrs. Potter ties the Potter and Black families together in a manner where you are now the legal head of the family so there cannot be anyone that can claim the title of being Lord Black other then yourself. As for the title of Lord Potter no one could ever challenge you over that title due to the fact that you are the heir of your father. The other families gave their title to the Black family on the passing of the last of their kin but the families required that someone from the Black family have a wife that you represent their specific blood line. Now for the questions. Do you want to go over all of your assets or would you like them compiled into a list with all relevant information? Do you want your parents will here to read or would you like to take the will home with you?"

Harry looked over at his wife wondering whether or not she cared what decision he made as to the reading of his parents will. She didn't seem to care one way or the other judging by her reaction to these words and the way that she was looking at him

He sighed knowing that there were still a few things that needed to be done today; he could read his parents will in private where he could let out his grief properly. It would be best if he could avoid destroying a room like he had the night of Sirius' passing. "We will take a copy of all the properties owned, vaults in our possession, business holdings, and other assets, and my parents will."

"Very well… I will have everything grabbed for you while the two of you sign the necessary paperwork," said the goblin.

"Paperwork?" asked Harry a bit startled that he would have to sign anything at all.

"Yes… it is just to make everything legal that you are now in control of all your substantial assets and by doing this it will bind your magical signature to the vaults making it so that you and only those you and your wife permit are allowed to access," said the goblin in an almost bored tone.

Within twenty minutes everything was signed and acquired. Harry and Narcissa got up and left the room, and began to walk back towards the alley.

Harry was beginning to walk down the steps when Narcissa stopped him with a light tug on his arm.

"I'll see you back home," said Narcissa in a soft voice. "I would rather not risk being seen anymore in Diagon Alley especially in your company because it would rise to many suspicions that we do not want brought about. Kingsley can apparate you back, but don't worry you have forty five minutes until my sister arrives so be discreet on your way back to Ollivander's shop."

"Alright…," said Harry seeing her point here. "I'll see you when I get back."

Harry just nodded before kissing her on the cheek and then going into the crowd making his way back to pick up his new wand.

He was almost their when by accident he bumped into someone. Trying not to give any suspicion to this he bent down and said, "I'm sorry about that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. Here let me help you."

Just as he picked up the bags he heard her quietly say, "Harry?"

**Author's Note: Sorry about the delay. With my vacation and my disgruntled feeling about HBP I didn't spend as much time writing this chapter as I could have. It didn't help that I was being lazy. However that is no excuse and I will try and have the next chapter out sooner.**

**There is a challenge in my profile that I want people to look at if they have time. Again I am sorry about the delay but I have the next chapter or so mapped out in my head as well as the beginnings of another story so I will try to be more diligent.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven** - Things Do Not Always Go as Planned Part 2

'Shit! Now what am I supposed to do,' thought Harry as he heard his name come from the person.

Making his mind up in an instant Harry gave a slight nod of his head before motioning with his finger for the person who found him to be quiet. Gently he grabs them by their arm and begins guide them into Ollivanders.

"Why are we here Harry? I don't mean to sound rude but why couldn't we have talked outside?"

"Several reasons," said Harry calmly as he took his first real look at the girl he brought into the shop. "First though I need to know… which of the lovely Patil twins is it that I bumped into today?"

"You mean that you don't know?" said the girl in a slightly mocking tone. Then her tone turned slightly more on edge. "I can't believe that you don't recognize the girl that you embarrassed at the Yule Ball during our fourth year. The person who has been one of your housemates for five year."

"Parvati," said Harry as news of who he happened to bump into today dawned on him. "Look… this isn't exactly the place to talk, but I know a place that we can for a little bit. That is… if you're willing and able to I mean."

Parvati took her time and logically thought about this and just before she says anything Mr. Ollivander appears.

"Good to see you back Mr. Potter. I have your new wand right here and I must say that it was a pleasure to make such a fine wand for you. I know I told you this once before but we can expect great things from you."

"Thank you for the new wand Mr. Ollivander. I'll have someone come back later to arrange for payment, because I am a little busy at the moment," said Harry. "As long as this arrangement is acceptable with you, that is?"

"That will be fine."

"Kingsley could you take both myself and my friend back to my house?" asked Harry.

"Not a problem Harry," said the auror. "Now both of you take a hold of an arm firmly and then we shall leave."

Parvati just gave Harry a puzzled look as she grabbed Kingsley's arm.

A moment later they appeared in the library at Harry's new home. Motioning for Parvati to have a seat he whispered into Kingsley's ear "Tell Narcissa that I ran into some one and I need to talk to this person so I will see her just before our plan to incapacitate her sister occurs."

Kingsley just nodded before leaving the room, while casting a silencing charm around the room.

Almost immediately after Harry had taken a seat Parvati began to talk, "Alright Harry I have been patient enough… now where are we located? Why couldn't we talk in Diagon Alley? And what is with an auror escorting you around?"

"I'll answer all of you questions in a moment as long as you agree to one thing," said Harry in a calm tone. He knew that she had a right to be agitated and he getting mad wouldn't help the situation at all, so it would be best if he could try and keep on an even keel for both of their sakes. "Everything that I tell you today I want you to keep to yourself unless I tell you that you can tell some one else, is that alright?"

"Why should I do that for you? I mean it isn't like you have done anything for me before today… if anything you owe me something after the Yule Ball," said Parvati, whirling about on him so quickly it shocked him.

"Imagine my humiliation that night when the whole school saw that I was your date! Then after the first dance we go to sit down which although I didn't like I agreed to go and sit. But after that is where it gets goes from acceptable to embarrassing, you stop paying any attention to me what so ever. You ignore me and then don't even bother to come and apologize to me after you do it. No you just sulk around and ignore almost everyone. Do you realize how much time I spent getting ready to make sure that I looked my best for you that night only to be ignored by the one person that I wanted to go with, who just happened to be you!"

Harry sat shocked not at all expecting this from the girl who he always thought might be less mature then he would want. As Harry slowly digested this it made him realize that maybe Parvati and her twin sister weren't so different after all. She obviously was more intelligent then she let on to others but instead of wanting knowledge like Padma, she wanted to carve out a name for herself as an individual.

"Ok…," said Harry putting up his hands in defeat. "I need to do something to make up for that in order for you to do a favor for me, right?"

"Yes," said Parvati with an indignant huff. "At the very least you owe me a date, after ruining what should have been one at the Yule Ball."

Harry just smiled at this thought. "How about on the first Hogsmeade weekend we go together. Just the two of us and I promise that I will be all of yours that day. Does that sound acceptable to you?"

Parvati just sat there for a minute before taking a deep breath and saying, "Ok… first Hogsmeade weekend just the two of us in exchange for me being quiet about seeing you in Diagon Alley and your explanations about why we couldn't talk where we bumped into each other."

"Good, now I want you to relax because this explanation could take a while to go through and I would rather not be interrupted," said Harry as he adjusted himself to get more comfortable.

As Parvati did the same Harry began to speak, "The reason that we couldn't talk in Diagon Alley was because I didn't want to run the risk of certain people finding out I was actually in the alley. One of the things that you along with most people don't know about me is the fact that our esteemed Headmaster in his infinite wisdom tries to control certain aspects of my life. Before the year ended he told me that I would have to stay my aunt and uncle's house again and that I should leave the area around the house."

Parvati just gave a confused look at this but let Harry continue with his explanation.

"He seems to believe that just because of his name he is able to run my life how he sees fit. I'm sure that you as well as most others have noticed that I get somewhat preferential treatment from him during the school year and it seems like he believes that it is his responsibility to control the events in his life without informing others or talking to me about his decisions. I have finally had enough of this and because of that I am doing what I believe are things that are for my best interest, which includes going to Diagon Alley."

"I know that you are wondering why I would be worried about others overhearing us and that is something that I can't fully tell you… at least at the moment. Now the person that brought us back to my new home is a friend who is helping to look out for me over the summer."

Parvati sat there for a few minutes thinking about what Harry said before asking, "Ok if Dumbledore doesn't want you going to public places why did you have to go to Diagon Alley… other then getting a new wand I mean."

Harry just gave her a smile before saying, "I had to go to Gringotts to take care of some business, something that I needed to do anyways and the sooner that I got it out of the way the better."

"Nothing more that you want to tell me?" asked Parvati innocently batting her eye lashes at him.

"Well… no," said Harry carefully observing her. "But how about you tell me what you were doing in Diagon Alley alone? I thought that you would at the very least be with your sister or a friend."

Parvati seemed to narrow her eyes a little but relaxed as it appeared to her that Harry was just curious about her being there alone. "Well Padma went to visit Sue Lee… you know her house mate." Seeing Harry nod she continued. "So I decided to go out and get away from the house for a while."

Harry just continued to smile when Kingsley popped his head into the room and gave a small tap on his watch indicating that it was time for Harry to wrap up his conversation.

He just gave a slight nod before speaking to Parvati again, "So when do you have to be back to your house?"

Parvati looked down at her watch and realized that she needed to be home soon. "I need to be home in like five minutes."

She started to look a little frantic so Harry took matters into his own hands and said, "Calm down you can use the fireplace to get back home, alright?"

Parvati nodded and began to walk towards the fire place when Harry lightly grabbed her shoulder. "Um… I was wondering… if you didn't mind that is… could I owl you over the summer?"

Parvati just stood there with a little shock that Harry actually asked if he could owl her over the rest of the summer. She couldn't see any reason not to and just nodded her head before turning around and grabbing some floo powder.

Harry smiled to himself as he saw Parvati disappear in a whirl of green flames. He then turned and walked out of the room to find Narcissa. A minute later he ran into Kingsley who said that she was in the dining room at the moment.

Halfway to there Harry remembered that he would need his invisibility cloak in order to accomplish his goal. He pulled out his holly wand and muttered, "_Accio_ invisibility cloak."

He had just about reached the door to the dining room when his invisibility cloak caught up to him. As he folded up the invisibility cloak and moved into the room he saw his wife reading through the Daily Prophet.

"Sorry about the delay…," said Harry as he took a seat next to her. "I know that it wasn't exactly how we had the day planned."

Narcissa just gave him a look that said that she didn't care, "We have other things that are more important to worry about at the moment. My sister is coming over and you need to be ready for when she appears."

"What else is there to do other then stun her and then take away her wand and restrain her so that she can't leave," said Harry with a frown. "I mean as long as she doesn't know that I'm there it shouldn't be any trouble for me to do that, right?"

"As you should know well enough, some things require back up plans just in case unexpected things occur. That was a lesson that my former husband and my son have not learned up to this date."

"Okay…," said Harry slowly thinking of another plan. "When she sits down I could just have her strapped down and then summon any wands and portkey that she may have on her."

"That would probably be a better plan. I would rather her be awake the whole time because it will make explanations much easier," said Narcissa. "Would you be averse to waiting for my signal to use the spell?"

"I would like to know a reason for waiting to bind her to the chair. I have a guess but I'd rather here your reasons and then make my decision."

"It is really simple. If I can get her comfortable it will be much easier to capture her. Usually she is on edge for a while so I just need to lull her into a calm state and then you will be all set."

"Seems reasonable enough," said Harry slowly. "I know that you want to keep her in the house so that way nothing happens to her but how exactly are we supposed to do that… I mean it isn't like we can keep her from apparating out of the house."

Harry had turned his chair slightly so that Narcissa could lean into him. Gently he pulled her against him, while she began to speak. "Don't worry about that I already have it figured out. She won't be leaving the house any after she arrives as long as we have her wand."

"Ok," responded Harry as he wrapped his arms around her. Without thinking he moved his head into the crook of her neck. "You're nervous about what I'm going to do after she is restrained aren't you."

"Yes…," said Narcissa softly. "How did you know that? I mean almost nobody that I have met has been able to tell my emotions."

"I think that it has to do with the magically binding marriage," said Harry slowly.

Narcissa didn't say anything but waited for him to continue.

"Ever since it finished I sort of have been able to feel your emotions," said Harry. Before he quickly added, "Nothing to definite but you know… sort of like an intuition about your feelings even if I can't locate what they are about specifically."

"Then how did you know that it was about what you may do to my sister after she is restrained?"

"Because you were going over what was to happen when she got here… so I just figured that it would have something to do with that is all," said Harry.

Narcissa just sighed as she rested her head on top of his, allowing the tow of them to sit in a comfortable silence for a few minutes.

Finally Cosmo appeared and said, "Master and Mistress, Mistress Bellatrix is here awaiting Mistress' presence. What should Cosmo do?"

Narcissa made to stand up as Harry released his arms and lifted his head in preparation.

"Tell her I will meet her in the library and offer her a drink," said Narcissa.

"Yes mistress." With that the elf gave a slight bow before disappearing.

"Ok I'm going to silence your feet," said Narcissa. "Then I want you to follow right behind me, ok?"

"Sure," said Harry quietly as Narcissa waved her wand at his feet.

He then proceeded to slip his invisibility cloak over his head before following her out the door towards her sister. 'My sister in-law' thought Harry wryly.

Narcissa entered to see Bellatrix already waiting in a chair.

"Now sister dear why are we at our old house?" asked Bellatrix. "There must be something going on if we are here of all places."

"We have something that needs to be discussed," said Narcissa. "Now we talk about that I need to know if anyone knows that you left."

"Nobody knew that I left… now what could be so important that you wanted no one to know that I was leaving."

"Family business," said Narcissa giving a slight nod of her head.

Before Bellatrix knew what was happening she found herself bound to the chair and her wand traveling over towards a corner of the room.

"What is going on here Narcissa!" demanded Bellatrix.

Just as she finished her sentence Harry removed the invisibility cloak.

"You lied," said Bellatrix, while she glared at Narcissa. "This isn't family business. You betrayed me and our lord!"

"Not quite," said Harry before his wife could respond. "She did not lie when she just told you that you are here because of family business, and be grateful that you are still here."

Bellatrix wasn't having any of this however. "What have you done to my sister Potter? I know she would never do this to me."

"You are here because I wanted you here," said Narcissa calmly. "With the failings of your mission just before Hogwarts was released for the summer, I was released from my marriage to Lucius and the head of the Black family changed hands."

Bellatrix's eyes began to widen as she looked between Harry and Narcissa.

"You see Bella; while you did nothing wrong by dueling our cousin it gave the legal standing as the head of the Black family to my husband here."

"Potter! Potter is the head of our family, and you are married to him!"

Bellatrix would have said more but Harry cut her off with a wave of his wand and saying, _"Silencio."_

"It would be in your best interest if you do not say anything to provoke me," growled Harry. "Listen to what your sister is saying and then I'll let you talk."

"Now since I became free of my former husband I have been making a move to ensure my future and restore honor to our family," said Narcissa calmly. "By getting myself married to Potter I have guaranteed that the Black family assets will go to who Sirius would have wanted them to go."

Bellatrix just sat there glaring at her sister and her new brother in-law, who was now standing behind her chair.

"Now you might be wondering what exactly this has to do with you but realize that there is a point. Your duty is to the head of the Black Family above all others, which you know because of your agreement to your marriage," said Narcissa in a very business like tone. "Since my husband is now the head of the family your obligation is directly to him and no one else."

"Where my wife is going with this is simple," said Harry in a rational tone. "She does not want to lose any more family members to Voldemort and since she is my wife I am going to do my best to keep her happy as long as it is reasonable."

Bellatrix's eyes widened in realization as to what they were implying about what was going to happen to her.

"Yes Bella," said Narcissa calmly. "You are going to be living here and you are not going to be returning to the Dark Lord ever again. We have both lost our only two cousins to him and since it is within my power to keep you alive and out of jail I am going to do everything to guarantee it."

"Bellatrix Black Lestrange as the head of the Black Family I order you to remain at this house under your sister and my care until we choose otherwise," said Harry.

With those words spoken a flash of light burst into the room recognizing Harry's authority in the matter.

Then Harry raised his wand and released his sister in-law from the silencing spell. "Now between the two of us we will answer any questions that you have so long as they are within reason."

Bellatrix just sat there pondering over what, if anything, she wanted to ask the two people in front of her. She knew that she would be able to leave the house without Harry's permission so it was pointless to try and escape. "Do I get my wand back?"

"No," said Harry firmly. "You will not get it back until I can trust you enough."

At these words Bellatrix sat quietly realizing that she was defeated. She, the person who was the most faithful of the dark lord's follower, was defeated by… her new brother in-law and the head of her family.

Narcissa just watched her sister carefully waiting for her eyes to admit defeat. Finally she could tell that her sister had realized that no matter what her fate was in the hands of Harry and herself.

With a wave of her wand the binds surrounding Bellatrix disappeared leaving a shocked Bellatrix and Harry, who was looking at his wife with a questioning look on his face.

Narcissa just turned her attention to her sister and said, "You are fee to go around the house all you like, so long as you do not interrupt my husband's studies. You are welcome to join us for dinner, but after that we wish top be left alone, understood?"

Bellatrix just nodded her head, before saying, "I'll take my leave for my room."

Narcissa gave a snap of her fingers and Cosmo appeared in front of her. "Go and assign my sister a room. I'm sure that she would prefer one that would not be next to our bedroom."

"Yes mistress," spoke the elf before bowing and disappearing.

"How about we take an early meal and then you can fulfill your husbandly duties," said Narcissa while taking his hand and leading him to the kitchen for a small meal and a night that Harry would never forget


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight - Decisions of Summer Routine and a Lesson**

It was early morning when Harry awoke with a warm body snuggled up against his chest. Narcissa's long blonde hair was fanned out over her back and she had a content smile on her face.

As Harry lay in the bed basking in the warmth of another presence he thought about how his life had changed to this point.

He had just gone from losing his godfather and screwing up things with his first girlfriend to being married and now having control over his life. Yesterday they had talked about what he was going to be doing for the rest of the summer.

While she was right that he couldn't go back with a much larger magical knowledge, it wouldn't stop him from learning some things that they didn't exactly teach at school. Hopefully Kingsley and Tonks would help teach him what he wanted. Having people that already knew what he wanted to learn or at the very least had a few more years of knowledge would definitely speed up his learning.

Carefully shifting Narcissa so as not to wake her, Harry got out of bed and walked into the bathroom intent on taking a nice hot shower.

The bathroom was different from the one he had used before at the house. This one had a series of three shower heads which would allow at least two people in the shower comfortably at the same time, while still allowing everyone to be covered in the spray of the warm water.

He had been soaking up the warm water for a while when he felt a pair of arms wrap around his waste.

"Good morning," said Harry.

The only reply was Narcissa kissing his neck, while pressing her breasts, slightly, against his back.

As Harry felt her warm globes against his back, his thoughts drifted back to last night and how she had carefully helped him begin to learn the fine art of pleasuring a woman properly. Shortly after his first time, while waiting for his energy to return she had told him if he wished they could turn this into another type of lesson.

Judging by what she was doing at the moment it looked like now was the perfect time to resume his favorite _lesson_ with her.

An hour and a half later one clean and satisfied married couple went back into their bedroom to dress.

"That is definitely the way to wake in the morning," commented Harry as he pulled a black shirt on over his head.

"I would have to agree, Harry," Narcissa replied. "Now how about we go get some breakfast because I for one am feeling rather hungry after our… exercise."

"Mmm… that sounds good. Definitely need to put something back into me to gain back some energy."

As two of them made their way down to the kitchen to grab some food, Harry saw Bellatrix walk through a door into the library. It was something that would need to be discussed eventually, but for now he would just allow Narcissa to deal with his sister in-law.

The table had a large platter of croissants and a bowl of fruit in the center of the table for breakfast.

It was a quite affair as Narcissa read through the papers from Gringotts concerning everything other then the Potter family holdings, and Harry looked over the papers that held the Potter assets.

He finished the papers about the Potter assets a little after Narcissa had placed down the papers that she had left to look through from yesterday.

"So let me guess," said Harry dryly. "I have more money that I could ever be able to spend, I own several businesses, and have so much property that if I didn't tell anyone where I was would be impossible to find."

"Yes, but I was wondering if you had made any decisions about what you are going to do for the rest of the summer," she said calmly. "It is still early in the summer but besides what I already talked about teaching you, have you decided what you want to learn?"

"As a matter of fact I have basically made my decision about what I am going to learn over the summer," said Harry in a controlled manner. "I am planning on learning how to silently cast my spells and then also learning some spells that I know won't be taught at Hogwarts. Both of these things will allow me to get acquainted with my new wand properly, will keep from arousing suspicion, and I have the chance to learn how to use two wands at once if I ever find myself in need.

"And to think… my son believes that you are a Gryffindor to the core," said Narcissa with a teasing glint in her eyes.

Harry barely managed to restrain himself from laughing at the comment, although his amusement about the comment was clearly visible in his eyes. "Well just because a person happens to be in one house doesn't mean that they can't have qualities of at least one of the other houses."

"Very true," said Narcissa. "Now as for your studies, I can help you with silently casting spells if necessary, but since I will already be spending time with other lessons for you it would be easier to have one of your three guards teach you everything. Unfortunately I believe that it will be a while before I can get Bellatrix to be civil to you or others and I believe that it would be in everyone's best interest for the two of us to spend time together."

Harry nodded at these words. He agreed with her about that idea but he didn't want to voice it out loud and have it sound stupid because after all it wouldn't be good to anger his wife just after discovering the joys of sex.

Narcissa stood up from the table and then took a few steps over and grabbed Harry's hand. "Come on now it is time for your morning lessons with me," she stated. "After all it is the perfect chance to turn you into the perfect gentlemen."

"The perfect gentlemen, huh," said Harry amusement evident in his voice. "I don't know whether to run for the hills or wish that I could have had these lessons a year ago."

"Why? What happened last year?" asked Narcissa wondering what in the bloody hell he could have done so wrong. "There wasn't anything in the paper about you blowing up on anybody important or someone from the press."

"And for that I am grateful," said Harry in a solemn voice. "Last year I got my first girlfriend and… to speak simply I screwed up things completely because of overreactions and because I didn't know how to act like a gentlemen."

"Well, that would be a good place for us to start then and seeing as how you will need more wives it would be a good place to start," said Narcissa. "Now I would like you to tell me what happened last year and I'll see how we can undo the damage when you get back to school."

"I'll start by saying that the girl that I went out with last year was my first crush," said Harry. "From the first moment that I saw her on the quiditch pitch in my third year I was attracted to her. I mean she is an intelligent woman, a Ravenclaw, someone who plays quiditch and loves flying, and she is beautiful."

Narcissa just guided Harry into the ball room for today's lessons. It wasn't a full size ball room for hosting formal parties, but it was more a place where she had been taught how to dance among other things in order to be a proper young lady. Now it would serve as a learning place for Harry.

"Fourth year nothing happened much to my chagrin because I took to long to ask her to the Yule Ball," said Harry. "Instead she ended up going with Cedric Diggory, the other Tri-Wizard tournament champion for Hogwarts. They were together until he died near the end of the year.

She now had a pretty good idea of what could have happened at the least, but it was better to be quiet in order to find out everything before saying something that may or may not be helpful.

"To give you the gist of what happened last year, let's just say that I couldn't talk to her properly," said Harry. "It was something lead to our falling out near the end of the year and then I was so distracted I never really thought about what happened."

Narcissa waited for Harry to say more about the falling out but he didn't offer anymore of an explanation. He just stared blankly off into thin air.

"You are going to need to tell me more about what caused your falling out if I am to help you Harry," said Narcissa in a quite yet slightly demanding tone. She didn't want to force him into anything but there wasn't much she could do if he didn't tell her more information.

"One of our problems was that she wanted to know about Cedric's death, while I didn't want to retell the event," said Harry. "That wasn't what caused our last fight that ended things though. The former Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher seemed to have a personal vendetta against me because she believed that I was a threat to the ministry by saying that Voldemort was back at the time. She wouldn't teach anything practical for the class on the belief that because it was a time of peace we didn't need to know."

Here Harry paused for a moment to collect his thoughts before he could continue with what happened between him and Cho.

"Stupid bint," commented Narcissa. "How were you supposed to pass the OWLS then if you couldn't practice the spells properly? Honestly this individual seems incapable of logical thought, and that person shouldn't be involved in the ministry if they can't realize that simple idea."

Harry gave a smile at this thought. He would tend to agree with her but now was neither the time nor place for that; he had something to talk about first.

Narcissa gave a wave of her wand to get the music started and placed Harry's left arm so that it was wrapped around her waist just above her hips and his right was holding her left hand.

"Because of this a group that would practice the spells was formed and I was the leader. Cho, who is the name of my first girlfriend, joined the group along with one of her friends. Now that I think about it that friend of hers was the only one I saw around her last year," said Harry thoughtfully.

"Anyways her friend's mother works at the ministry and because of our teacher the friend was pressured by her mother to reveal any information that she might know to Dolores Umbridge, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Now eventually this friend of Cho's told Umbridge about the group, and I found myself up in the headmaster's office. In there I was confronted with creating an illegal club and was threatened with expulsion. Luckily Dumbledore helped me out and had the memory of the club oblivated her and took the fall, thus causing him to leave Hogwarts."

Harry paused for a second and took a breath. Now he was getting towards the difficult part of this tale. He needed to portray what happened carefully so as not to give her the wrong impression.

"After leaving the office I ran into Cho and she was worried about what happened to me. I had been able to get everyone out of the room before I was caught. Now after I had told her that nothing had happened to me she went and began talking about her friend who told Umbridge about the group."

"Upon hearing Cho defend her friend I just began spouting off without even listening to her argument," said Harry. "Cho said that her friend was only doing what she thought was best and that she really was a lovely person. I never gave her a chance when I steadfastly refused to listen to her."

Narcissa sat there for a moment reviewing what happened to Harry. It seemed that he had done a remarkably stupid thing to due to the girl. Well it could be fixed in the end as long as Harry was patient.

"This can be fixed Harry, but it will probably take some time," said Narcissa. "You are going to need to apologize to a degree. Now I understand you being mad at her friend, but if you look at the facts you can see what caused some of her problems."

Harry sat in his chair thinking about what was going on last year with Cho.

"From what you told me it looks like she had only one close friend, and she had to stick up for that friend after all she had been through before that, and yet her friend still stuck with her no matter what," stated Narcissa.

"I know that you were angry about being betrayed, but whether you like it or not she acted in what she thought were her best interests. This girl didn't see what took place and because of that she didn't know who to believe. The ministry, which was so far up Fudge's arse, did not even bother to investigate the roomer and therefore it is hard to believe the word of a fifteen year old over her mother and the ministry."

Harry looked down at his feet before saying, "I never thought of it from that perspective, but she still shouldn't have told Umbridge about the group."

"You are right," said Narcissa. "However she was doing what she believed what was for the best, and you have no right to judge her otherwise. No person has the right to judge someone else on what they believe to be in the best interest."

He just gave a weak nod as he reflected back on what happened at the ministry.

Already sensing where his thoughts were going to cut him off and said, "It was not your fault that he died. He did the same thing that you would gladly have done in the same situation. Luck was not on his side that night, and in the end unfortunately he did not have much luck in life. However know that he loved you more then life itself and rest assured he is in a better place getting finally getting a chance to be truly happy, along with your parents."

"It still doesn't make this fair," said Harry bitterly.

"No it doesn't," she replied quietly. "But there is nothing that we are able to do about that fact."

The two of them continued practicing dancing for a while as Harry stewed over the two main topics that they had just covered.

"That means that I don't have the right to judge the headmaster or the two people who call themselves my best friends though," said Harry softly.

"No Harry… you do have a right to judge them to a degree," replied Narcissa. "If they do not tell you what they are going to do then you do have a right to judge them to an extent. It means that while they do care about you, they do not care as much as they believe."

Looking confused Narcissa continued, "This is confusing I know, give me a second. I will admit that they will care about you even though they are reporting to the headmaster and he is trying to set you up with someone that you do not have feelings for in order to try and level you out and get you to think. These things are wrong and if they can't even have the courtesy of telling you that they are going to do this they do not respect you and what you have been through enough to realize that only you can choose what needs to be done for yourself."

"Isn't that something that you did though already earlier by telling me what lessons I needed to learn and buying me new glasses and that set of clothes for yesterday," questioned Harry.

"Ahh so you are a quick study," replied Narcissa amused though still keeping quite to see if Harry would persist with his questioning.

"And you danced around the question my dear," said Harry allowing some levity to finally enter the conversation.

Narcissa gave a small smile before replying, "O the woe I have given to you my dear husband to force you to wear new glasses and clothes. I have failed miserably beyond all pale trying to help you deal with the headmaster as well as others."

Harry's eyes began to twinkle as he felt his magic course through his body. He just continued to look at her waiting for her to continue.

"To force my husband to learn things that would be required of him as the head of several major pureblood families. Of all the misdeeds that I could have done this is but the worst possible," said Narcissa, who turned around before fainting dramatically into Harry's arms.

Harry just pulled her tight against him before saying, "I forgive you then madam, and so long as you realize that if you do this again I shall do to you what I am going to do to mister spoony."

Giving a wave of his wand a plastic spoon appeared and fell to the ground and Harry proceeded to stop his right foot down to snap it in half before giving another wave to vanish the halves.

"It shall be kept in mind dear," replied Narcissa before she began to laugh.

"Alright I understand your point," said Harry after they finished laughing. "Now before we go for lunch I feel that I should tell you something. I believe that it would be best to become a close friend to Cho because I already have a date with someone else and I do not want to appear to either girl that I am cheating on them, and I do not really know how I feel about Cho so I will be at the very least what I should have been for her last year, and that is a close friend."

**Author's Note: I apologize for the delay with this chapter. It was not a planned delay but I had trouble thinking about how I wanted to start this chapter. Finally it did come to me after I began work on another story idea that I have had in my head for a length of time. As for plans on when this other story will be released I do not honestly know when that will occur. My first fic that I poster, A Black's Blessing in Green and Silver has been taken over by Danielc for those who wish to read that fic. There will be no lemon as so many people requested because writing that sort of scene is not my specialty and I want to leave it up to everyone's own imagination. The next chapters will move a little quicker, but these first eight needs to cover so much before I could get moving through the summer.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine – Training Progression**

Harry spent the afternoon looking through a couple of books in the library before he began working on casting his spells silently. From what he had picked up from his reading it seemed that if he could sufficiently focus his magic to do the spell he would be able to cast it without the need for enunciation.

It was suggested in the second book that he looked at that concentrating on the words in his head would actually allow him to cast it silently, and that eventually he would be able cast spells faster then when they were vocalized.

He began with some of the simpler spells and then move onto the more complicated spells that he would need when the time would come later.

The afternoon moved by quickly and he ate a solitary dinner as Narcissa had stopped by to tell him that she would be eating with Bellatrix. Tonks had stopped by just after he finished checking on him, and telling him that there would be an Order meeting that night.

Before she left Harry asked her to talk to Kingsley and Mad-Eye also about tutoring him in dueling techniques and teaching him a few spells that he wanted as well as a few that they thought he would need.

She agreed to talk to them and that Mad-Eye would be stopping by tomorrow afternoon anyways to at the least tell him about the Order meeting.

The night was spent continuing his practice with silent spells before his wife finally appeared looking somewhat stressed.

Harry took it as his clue to stop practicing for the night and just spend some time with her.

The rest of the night progressed in a very similar manner as to the night before with the continuation of his "lessons."

Morning arrived and Harry set on with his other lessons after breakfast. He was pretty sure that it wouldn't take the whole summer to learn everything that Narcissa claimed that he would need, but when the time would come he would talk to her about that and for now he would just spend his time with her.

Lunch past with small talk about what was going on with Bellatrix. It seemed that Narcissa would be able to make some progress even though it would take time for Bellatrix to act civilly towards Harry.

Again Narcissa went to spend more time with her sister, while Harry went back to his self study.

He had just arrived in the library when he saw Mad-Eye Moody waiting for him.

Motioning for the retired auror to take a seat Harry began, "So what happened last night at the Order meeting, if I may ask?"

"Nothing of real note took place. Just the usual reports about where Voldemort attacked," said Moody. "Nothing that can't be read in the paper by anyone laddy. The chaos has picked up now that there has been an official statement that acknowledges that he is back."

"Alright, I guess that I can't really complain about that at all," said Harry. "Have you made any progress in getting people to want a change in leadership of the Order?"

"Aye," responded Moody. "There has been some progress made in that area. The Weasley twins and their older brothers, as well as Hestia Jones, and a few older aurors that I know have all agreed to back you on the idea that you want to change the Order so that it is not Albus running everything the way that he chooses fit."

"Well that is a start to say the least," said Harry slowly. "We are going to need more people though aren't we?"

"Not too many more. What we have been doing is looking at getting the more skilled duelists and important people of the group," said Mad-Eye. "By next week we will probably have enough people in the group to bring about a change in the Order because we have several more who are mulling over this."

"Excellent," said Harry. "Now did Tonks talk to you and Kingsley last night about what else I wanted?"

"That she did lad, that she did," said Mad-Eye. "Next week we will begin teaching you some things about dueling as well as helping you learn any spells that you may want. Now by the end of the summer you will be better than any student but don't go fooling yourself about how good you will be because there still will be many more better then you."

"I know," stated Harry with a calm voice. "It will take more then one summer of afternoon practice to become one of the better duelists out in the world. My goal is to become one of the better magic users in the world and it takes many years of practice to achieve that so this is only the beginning. For the moment though I can only really concentrate on dueling spells because they are not really taught at Hogwarts. It would obviously look strange if I went back to school incredibly far ahead of everyone else in all my class work so I have to concentrate on other things to learn."

"That is the attitude that you should have Potter," growled Mad-Eye. "Next week Monday afternoon one of us will meet you in the library and begin your training and it would be wise for you to study some of the books that you have until then."

After a quick nod to Harry the battle hardened auror disappeared with a pop and left Harry to his studies.

With this knowledge in hand Harry would be able to set a schedule for the rest of the week at the very least. Lessons with his wife in between breakfast and lunch and studying with practical application of magic. After dinner, however, would be free time to do whatever he felt like, since there was no work to due for his classes at Hogwarts.

That afternoon Harry made progress with casting his spells silently as he was able to cast the levitation charm as well as a few other charms that he had learned from Flitwick. It was a major breakthrough to actually cast some spells without having the need to say them.

A shock came at dinner when he actually ate with Bellatrix as well as Narcissa. Although Harry and Bellatrix didn't say anything he had to think that it was a step in the right direction because between them they were able to control their enmity and be civil.

As Harry entered the bedroom later that night, which was after finding a pool in the basement and going for a swim, he found Narcissa running a brush though her blonde tresses.

Taking the brush from his wife he took up the task that she had been recently doing before saying, "It looks like there has been a good amount of progress with Bella as of this evening, if I may say."

Narcissa gave a faint smile before she said, "Luckily her resentment towards you isn't that bad even though it is still there as of today. I was able to make her realize that you really weren't that bad and that in itself was enough to get her to try and be civil to you if nothing else."

"So do you think that you will be able to make any significant progress over the summer?" Harry asked continuing his movements with the brush.

"Only time will tell," said Narcissa with a sigh. "So how was your afternoon?"

"Good," said Harry slowly. "I will start my training on Monday, aside from my own studies."

"That is nice Harry," she replied.

"Ok… enough talk how about we just go to bed," said Harry as he put the brush down and placed his hands on her shoulders and gave a slight squeeze.

Giving a slight stretch she stood up and took his hand leading him over to their bed.

(Scene break)

The rest of the week fell into an easy rhythm as Harry spent the morning with his wife and studied in the library before practicing his magic.

Once he had his initial breakthrough with casting spells silently he was picking up casting other spells silently rather quickly. He felt confident that he would be able to cast all of his spells silently by the end of the summer at the latest.

It didn't take long for it to be Monday afternoon when Kingsley appeared in the library.

"Thank you for deciding to help me with my dueling and spell work," said Harry "but if I may ask how is it that you are here and not out doing auror business?"

"The reason that I am here is that I told the office that I had some field work to take care of personally," spoke the tall dark skinned auror. He gave a small laugh before saying, "I consider this to be more important then sitting behind a desk going through paper work."

Harry just gave a laugh before leading the auror to the ball room where Narcissa would teach him dancing.

"Alight Harry the best way for me to find out what I should begin teaching you is for us to have a duel," said Kingsley. "Nothing lethal or illegal for obvious reasons."

Harry just gave a nod of his head as he strode away from the auror to a reasonable distance.

Both of them gave a bow as the custom of formal dueling before Harry started the duel by saying, "_Expelliarmus."_

The auror just gave a quick side step before firing off a stunner followed quickly by a body bind.

Quickly moving to the side Harry was put on the defensive realizing that with the older man's experience and power he would have to make his spells count if he wanted to have any chance of surviving.

Moving his wand in a half circle he shot out a blinding flash of light so as to gather himself.

The plan worked as Kingsley had to shield his eyes.

Seeing this Harry quickly fired off several jinxes in quick succession hoping to move the auror over to a corner where Harry would be able to fire at a target even if he was on the move.

Unfortunately for Harry, Kinglsey gave a wave of his wand and a yellow dome appeared around him and absorbed all of Harry's low level spells.

A quick flick of his wrist and a bright flash of white light later Harry was unconscious on the floor.

Kingsley calmly put Harry in a full body bind before walking over to Harry to make sure that he was not laying in wait for him to come to close to Harry.

A minute later Harry was again conscious and on his feet as Kingsley enerviated him and released the body bind.

"Not a bad start there Harry," said Kingsley in his deep voice. "You have plenty of potential but I am going to need to see all of the spells that you know in order to know which ones I should teach you."

Harry gave a nod of his head and took a few steps away before taking aim at a wooden board covered tightly in canvas. He had been using board before as a point to work on shooting his spells at.

After a while, Kingsley stopped Harry. "You obviously know a decent amount of spells, more then anyone at your age does but we are going to need to teach you some more advanced spells. First I want to know what spells you would like to learn though so that way we can concentrate on those if I find them to be reasonable."

"I was thinking about learning that spell that the Dumbledore used in his office to escape you earlier this year, that shield that you just did, spells like the blasting curse, you know ones that will knock a person out of a fight, and probably the bone breaking curse," said Harry thinking if there was anything else that he could think of to learn.

Kingsley stood there for a moment before saying slowly, "Most of those things I will be able to teach you Harry, but I will not teach you the bone breaking curse. The reason for this is that it is too hard to control and because of it you might kill a person accidentally. It is considered a dark art and you need auror level clearance from the ministry to use the spell. You do not need to burden of accidentally killing a person at such an age either."

Harry nodded his head in understanding, but at least he would learn a variety of other spells to incapacitate his opponents.

"The first spell we shall work on is the shield that I used to stop your spells from forcing me into a favorable position for you," said Kingsley. "It is a complex shield that causes the spells that hit it to break. It is given the incantation _contegere_ and when it is produced it can have different colors depending on the wizard that cast it."

"Any factors that determine the color of the shield?" asked Harry.

"The core of the wand used and the power of the witch or wizard that cast the spell," said Kingsley. "Now it is more powerful then the basic shield charm _protegero_ and it obviously takes a lot more force to break the shield or a much more advanced spell such as the killing curse or another unforgivable."

"If the spell is that strong why don't more people use it then in a duel?" asked Harry. It seemed logical to him to use this to protect oneself.

"The problem is that it requires a decent amount of magic to cast the shield, which many people believe is a waste and it is usually easier to avoid the spells instead," replied Kingsley. "It is more useful in a situation where you have been temporarily blinded."

"Ok," said Harry eager to begin practicing new spells.

Drawing his holly wand Harry gave a circular wave as Kingsley told him showed him and began to try and do the spell.

Finally on his fourth try a red and gold dome appeared over him and Kingsley clapped his hands in recognition of Harry's success.

"Now that you seem to be able to actually cast it we are going to have to try it against some of my spells to make sure that it is able to stand up to an attack," said Kingsley.

It didn't take to long for Kingsley to be satisfied that Harry could perform the spell and have it hold up against another opponent.

"Ok, now that you can cast that well enough, we get to the fun part," said Kingsley.

"The fun part," said Harry gulping as he looked over at the auror.

"Yes… you are now going to work on dodging my spells."

"O shit…" said Harry as he moved away to prepare for the onslaught to begin.

"Now I want you to avoid as much as you can without drawing your wand, but if you get to the point where you will not be able to avoid a spell go ahead and shield yourself," said Kingsley

With a nod of his head to indicate that he understood and prepared himself to move quickly.

Harry didn't have to wait long as Kingsley let loose a whirl of spells in a lot of different colors. Some of them Harry could recognize but others he couldn't, which meant that he would definitely have to keep moving in unpredictable patterns.

Rolling, sidestepping, diving, and some times even flat out running, Harry lasted for a half an hour before finally having to draw his wand to create a shield around him.

"Good Harry," stated Kingsley. "In time you will be able to last longer then that but that will of course require better stamina."

Harry nodded his head upon hearing these words, to busy sucking in air trying to recover.

"With just lasting that long alone hopefully that will allow someone to come and aide you at least," he continued. "The reason that I want you to be able to dodge for that long is because sometimes you are overmatched completely or you are magically drained and cannot counter there attacks."

Harry nodded and continued resting a moment before saying, "What else are we going to be doing today?"

"Another couple of rounds of this and then I'll let you rest to recover for Alastor's lesson tomorrow," he replied.

Harry just nodded his head and prepared himself for the next round.

An hour and a half later an exhausted Harry was found collapsed in a chair. It had been one bloody tiring training session to say the least.

According to Kingsley, Mad-Eye would be concentrating on teaching him Death Eater habits and using ones environment to an advantage when dueling, while Tonks would outright duel with him and try to teach him a few new spells . Tonks wouldn't be able to teach him as much as Mad-Eye or Kingsley but between the two of them both should be able to become better duelists.

Kingsley would end up teaching him most of the spells as well as dueling with Harry. This seemed logical to Harry since he remembered how much Kingsley excelled in dueling. Tonks on the other hand, while still a good duelist, didn't have as much time to develop her practical skills.

Slowly Harry dragged himself into the kitchen so as to get some dinner.

He found Bellatrix sitting there again along with his wife. Giving Narcissa a smile he moved over and sat next to her, and began loading his plate with food.

Harry began eating slowly and it didn't take Narcissa long to ask what was wrong, "Kingsley worked me like a dog this afternoon. I am definitely glad that he isn't teaching me how to duel every afternoon this summer."

Bellatrix just gave a slight snort and Harry looked over at her wondering what that was about.

"Have something to say there?" he said in a sharp tone.

She just looked stared at him with her violet eyes before saying, "At least you are taking the initiative to learn how to duel properly. That way the next time you run into a Death Eater you will survive without the need for help, even if you are learning from someone that is inferior."

"You think that you are better then the people teaching me," he said with a growl.

"He might be an excellent duelist but he doesn't know how Death Eaters duel better then I do Potter," she snapped.

"Alright if you think that you could teach me better about how to defend myself against them, why not help teach me this summer," said Harry. He held his tongue knowing that he might be able to goad one of Voldemort's most feared Death Eaters into teaching him some of the tactics that Death Eaters like to use and how he would be able to defend himself against them properly. After all what better way to learn how to defend himself against what the enemy does then from one of them.

"At least it will give me something to do other then sit around this house all summer," she replied coolly.

"You do understand that you will not be able to cast any spells that can be lethal or permanently injure me, right?" asked Harry staring back at her.

"I don't need to be killed Potter, seeing as how I can't leave this house anyway and it wouldn't be like I could considering the Dark Lord has told us that he reserves the right to kill you and he wants you healthy when he accomplishes the job," said Bellatrix.

"At least we have an understanding then," said Harry calmly returning to his food.

Harry just sat in a comfortable chair and looked though some books mostly covering conjuring spells and transfiguration. This was something that he figured would be useful in a duel as he remembered how Dumbledore used it in his duel with Voldemort.

Realizing that he wouldn't last to much longer he went up and went to bed early.

The time leading up to his birthday was pleasant to say the least. His dueling abilities increased; by what Harry would say was a large amount now that he had proper instructors, and he learned a lot form his wife.

Bellatrix was able to teach Harry how to recognize what spell a Death Eater would be sending at him, and how to effectively neutralize the attacks. Between the Tonks, Mad-Eye, and Kingsley he was learning a decent amount of spells and not just how to cast them but they wanted him to perfect each spell that he learned before moving on to a new one.

Everything was moving as planned and Harry was having one of the best summers of his life. However by the time of his birthday all of his planning would be changed due to circumstances that no one would be able to foresee.

**Author's Note: New chapter in record time it seems. I was motivated to write this chapter and I hope that it lives up to expectations. Also I also wanted get a chapter out for the story soon because I have several long papers for my classes coming up and a project for one of my business classes that I will need to make sure I work on properly. I might get up another chapter for it before December but I'm not making a promise. There is also my other story that I am writing and I do want to get another chapter out for it as well, and the more readers that I can get for it the better. Thank you for your time.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten – Thought I'd Keep What Takes Place Hidden (**I know that is evil)

Harry awoke early like always on his birthday showing and then going to practice his Occulemency. While he felt confident that he had made sufficient barriers to keep someone out of his mind, he also found his morning meditation to be very calming and it helped him to think about what he was going to do when he returned to Hogwarts.

It was all well and good to try and plan for how he should act at school but really it was all speculation as he didn't know how Ron, Hermione, and the headmaster would act at school. It didn't matter how many different things that he could plan for it would all be up in the air at the time of his return.

However he would be able to control when he would meet them at the least. Avoiding them on the train would be easy enough and probably the wisest thing to do because it would put him in control on the inevitable first meeting.

Another thing that Harry would use his meditation time to think about was the whole situation with four wives. He knew that Narcissa would be fine with this fact but it was getting any other girl that he would have interest in to agree to the idea that could result in problems.

He had just finished his meditation as Hedwig dropped a letter into his lap.

"Good to see you back girl…," said Harry stroking her feathers. "Come on into the kitchen and I'll give you a snack before you go to sleep."

Hedwig gave a soft hoot of agreement before hopping onto his should to be brought towards her snack.

Harry gave her a bit of bacon before turning to open his letter. It was written by Parvati in response to the letter he sent a few days ago just to ask how her summer was going.

_Hi Harry,_

_My summer is going fine, although a little dull. I guess that is a good thing though with what happened before the summer. Glad to see that you finally took time to write me!_

_I am just wondering if something came up because no letter for almost two weeks after telling me that you would owl me is a little odd._

_Sorry if I'm prying but well…I would like to know and finally I get a chance to ask. Guess that is a difference between me and my sister, Padma. While she will keep quite, I want my opinion to be heard and when I get the chance will not allow it to slip by._

_I know, I know I rambling here in this letter, but o well it is something to do and it lets me have a chance to talk to someone outside of my family._

_So how is you summer going? Are you nervous about you O.W.L.s because I know that I am? Doing anything interesting or have a vacation planned? My family is going away for the whole first week of August to Italy so that we can have some time to relax and not worry about what is taking place here._

_O well I guess that I'll end my rambling and hope that you will send me another letter._

_Yours,_

_Parvati _

'Well, at least I have a potential girlfriend already even if I don't know enough about her yet,' thought Harry as he tucked away the letter into an inner pocket of his robes.

His robes were just the basic school set but that didn't bother him in the least. It wouldn't do to have clothes that would just need replacing by the end of the summer anyways.

Since the potions that Narcissa had given him at the beginning of his time at his new house he had grown a good two inches or so and she had said that he would probably end up at about five foot ten, which was a reasonable height. It wouldn't be to tall but closer to average, but still they weren't going to buy him his new wardrobe yet because he was still developing and it would be better to be safe then sorry and then there was also the unknown factor of how his frame would actually develop.

As he walked into the kitchen he found Bellatrix alone eating some croissants and fruit. "No sign of my wife this morning?" asked Harry as he took a seat at the table across from her and began piling some food onto his plate and pouring a cup of tea.

Bellatrix shook her and continued eating.

"Good," said Harry before adding "I was wondering if you would like to be able to talk to your other sister again, since I know you must get bored being locked up here and not being able to do anything about the fact."

Slowly Bellatrix raised her head to look at Harry in silent contemplation of what exactly he had just said to her. "Did Cissy put you up to this or what?" she asked cautiously, though not in an accusing tone.

Harry shook his head before saying, "No she did not put me up to this or even mention the idea. I thought of it on my own and I would like Narcissa not to know that I even had the idea. Simply put it is a way of thanking you for helping me learn what spells the death eaters more commonly use and how to stop them if I find myself in the situation. You were not obligated to do this after I forced you to stay in this house, but yet you did and for that I am grateful. Now while you have done other things I find reprehensible I will not deny you the right to see estranged family because otherwise the chance for a change to occur with you is relatively small."

"May I have some time to think this over properly," Bellatrix asked keeping her voice dead even.

Harry watched her for a second before saying, "Take as much time as you need."

Bellatrix gave a silent nod before getting up and leaving to some part of the house. Where she was going Harry had no clue but it didn't really matter as just then Narcissa walked into the kitchen.

(Scene break)

Albus Dumbledore was walking down Privet Drive towards the former home of Harry Potter, which was something that he did not know as of yet.

The summer so far had been an extremely busy one and he had been thankful that Harry had not been trying to ask him a bunch of questions about what was taking place in the wizarding world. Although this was a good thing he was slightly worried about the boy, as it seemed that he wasn't talking with his friends and had even gone so far as to request to be left at Privet Drive for the remainder of the summer holidays.

This was something odd because Harry had never wanted to stay at Privet Drive before in all his recollections of Harry from Hogwarts. Although Harry was in different circumstances this year it still was strange and for that reason Albus had decided to check up on Harry to see if everything was fine.

He arrived at number four Privet Drive at 9:30 am and knocked on the door.

A woman with a horse like neck answered the door and asked, "May I help you?"

"Hello Mrs. Dursley, my name is Albus Dumbledore and I am looking to speak with your nephew Harry," he said calmly.

"He hasn't been here for a few weeks," replied Petunia in as civil of a tone as she could keep before adding "now I would like you to leave as I have no clue where he is or will be."

Albus Dumbledore just stood there shocked as the door shut in his face. Harry wasn't at Privet Drive according to his aunt and Mrs. Figg hadn't reported that she had seen the boy leave. In fact he had several reports that Harry had been seen at his home as recently as yesterday.

Knowing that if he kept standing there it would look suspicious he quickly apparated to his house. He had to move quickly to try and find out where Harry was and if any of the order members knew what happened.

'How was it possible for Harry to escape and yet some of the people guarding Harry said that Harry was at his home the whole time,' thought Albus clearly confused. 'There is no way to fool Alastor's eye and I have his report that he saw Harry at his home yesterday and yet according to his aunt Harry has been away for several weeks.'

Moving deliberately the headmaster headed for the fireplace located in his study, so that he could contact his old friend.

A minute later Mad-Eye's head appeared in the fireplace and said, "What is it Albus? An attack or information about a possible attack?"

"No, neither of those my friend, just a couple of questions that I wanted to ask you about young Harry?" he stated calmly. "I just came from his house and according to his aunt, Harry left there several weeks ago and she has no clue where he is apparently, and yet I am in the disposition of several members of the Order saying that they have seen him at his home during this period. You are among the people that have said that they have seen Harry there so I decided to call you. As recently as yesterday even you said you saw him there, which would be a direct contradiction of Mrs. Dursley's statement. Now I know that your eye cannot be fooled Alastor so what exactly is going on here?"

Moody just snorted at what was just said to him. "Why were you at his house in the first place Albus? As far as I knew he didn't want to talk to anyone until he said so, let alone have anybody visit, so what reason would you have for even going to his house?"

"You are avoiding my question Alastor," stated Dumbledore calmly.

"Of course I am," said Moody "because I want my question answered first and until you answer it I will continue to avoid your question."

"It is very simple… I was checking on Harry to make sure that everything is all right," replied the headmaster.

"Don't give me that cock and bull story Albus, I'm not one of your students," growled Mad-Eye. "What was the real reason for the visit?"

"Besides wanting to make sure that Harry is fine, which was an actual reason Alastor, I was wondering if he would come with me to help recruit a certain person to teach at Hogwarts," he stated calmly.

"I highly doubt that he would want to Albus so why don't you just give the job to Snape and hire that Delacour girl as potions professor. She would be more then adequate as she specialized in dealing with potion based things for the goblins and the fact that she actually wants to teach at Hogwarts," state Moody.

"I will keep that under consideration but you still have to answer my question, Alastor."

"He is at house Albus and that is all I will tell you," growled Moody "because unlike some people I respect others privacy as long as they aren't death eaters."

"How am I not respecting his privacy Alastor? What have I done that doesn't give him his privacy and life?" asked Albus in a slightly challenging tone.

Alastor just snorted at this statement as well as the tone. "Don't give me that load of shit about having respected his privacy as well as his life for that matter. Just by going to try and visit him today you failed to respect his privacy. As for his life… don't get me started on what you have done that doesn't respect that in the first place."

Albus just sat there a little shocked that he would be the one on this side of the proverbial fence with one of his oldest friends. Usually the two of them agreed on most of his policies… well except whether or not Severus could be completely trusted.

After giving his head a little shake from that small outburst from the ex-auror he asked, "Then why did his aunt say that Harry has not been there for several weeks?"

Moody just snorted at the pretentiousness that the man before him showed. He just wouldn't let things go well maybe he could turn the tables here and get some answers out him for once. "Why is Mr. Potter so important that you have to check up on him anyways Albus? It is not like you would do this for any other kid at your school, which I know for a fact."

"It is simply because I care…," started Albus.

"Cut the horse shit and give me the real damn reason," Mad-Eye growled.

"I have no clue what you are talking about my friend," said Dumbledore calmly.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about here, so fess up," he growled. "Why is Voldemort so obsessed with killing Mr. Potter and what makes you so worried about making sure that he stays alive to the point of having order members watch his house, and more specifically him."

"That is something I cannot fully answer Alastor," stated Dumbledore kindly. "All you need to know is that Harry is very important and needs to be protected properly."

Moody just looked back stone faced before saying, "Well then all you need to know is that the boy is at his home with family and I'm going to tell him that you tried to visit next time I see the lad."

On that note Moody closed the floo, before muttering, "Shit that was exactly what we didn't need yet."

While over at his home Dumbledore sat down in a chair wondering exactly what was going on here and when exactly he had lost control over what took place, and if he had ever held control since the summer had begun. With a boom in the amount of attacks all over Britain and more posts from the ministry asking for advice he was beginning to think that he was really overstretched at the moment.

(Scene Break)

Harry was just reaching the end of a lesson about proper etiquette and how to deal with politicians and reporters, when Mad-Eye Moody came into the room.

"I wasn't expecting to see you today, especially so early," said Harry carefully, while wondering what exactly would bring Moody here before lunch of all times. "We are done with the lessons for today, right?" This question was directed at Narcissa who gave a nod before curiously looking at Moody wondering what exactly he would have to say.

"Things changed lad," stated Moody without preamble. "Albus went to visit you today to check up on you as well as to try and have you help convince someone he knows to teach at Hogwarts."

"So when he arrived and was informed that I hadn't been there for several weeks naturally he thought that something was up and decided to get in contact with you as you have been one of the people on guard duty, right?" asked Harry even though he was positive that he was right.

"Almost exactly what happened," stated Moody before adding "however I was able to stall him for a while at the least."

"How exactly were you able to stall him," asked Narcissa carefully. "I mean I'm sure that he was pretty determined to find out exactly where Harry was since he was told that he wasn't at his aunt's house."

"Aye… that he was, that he was, but I just gave him vague answers and then rerouted the conversation," stated Moody. "He seems to forget that I have dealt with him for so long that I can adjust things with him as need be so long as the change is well timed."

"Ok…," said Harry slowly trying to figure out exactly why Moody had to bring this to his attention. "Does this mean that we have to move up when I take control of the order away from Dumbledore?"

"That would probably be best lad, and we have enough people for this to occur safely," he replied.

"Do you know if anyone is currently staying at Harry's house, which the order is currently using?" asked Narcissa.

"The Weasley family and that Granger girl just are the only ones living there… why do you want to know," questioned Moody.

"I was thinking about having Harry go to the house but since there will be several people there that don't attend the meetings it would be too much of a problem," she calmly stated.

Mad-Eye just gave a nod of the head before saying to Harry, "Keep a hold of her lad… far better to keep her in your corner then to have her working against you."

There was really nothing Harry could do other then just nod his head at this statement.

"Ok, so when is the next Order meeting?" Harry asked steering the conversation back towards the reason that Mad-Eye had shown up all of the sudden. "I mean the sooner the better, right?"

"Tonight as a matter of fact," said Mad-Eye "and I wouldn't be surprised if Dumbledore brought the question up about what your aunt said to him today."

"Well it looks like there will be the change in leadership tonight, right Harry?" said Narcissa, before turning to Mad-Eye. "Can you get the message to the others quick enough to execute this properly though?"

"That shouldn't be too much of a problem as long as you let Shack know today during your session to notify the members that are with us for this control shift," growled Mad-Eye with his head down in thought.

"Then get moving… by the end of tonight I want the Order to be running differently and no more guards to be watching a house where I am not living, but instead doing other jobs," stated Harry quickly. "I'll let Kingsley know and have our session end early to notify the members, while I spend some time studying my old school books."

Mad-Eye just nodded before popping out of the house leaving Harry and Narcissa by themselves.

"Well… it looks like I'm going to be studying my books this afternoon and hoping that all goes well tonight," said Harry quietly.

"I'd recommend your potions books," said Narcissa, which raised an eyebrow from her husband. "If you manage to get into the class it would be helpful to strengthen your background of the material as I know for a fact that Snape isn't a helpful teacher, and that way you will know what you need. Also it will help later with the more advanced potions."

"How do you know that I even want to go into N.E.W.T. level potions?" asked Harry trying to keep his tone indifferent.

Narcissa just stared into his eyes before saying, "You just told me with your voice, although that was a good try hiding the fact. Don't worry about me reading you though I have years of experience at recognizing tones from being forced to live with my former husband."

Harry just shook his head realizing that it would still be a while before he would be able to inflect the tone that he chose into his words.

"Alright now come on I want to give you the gift I picked up for your birthday," said Narcissa excitedly as she grabbed his hand and began pulling him towards the study.

(Scene break)

It was late evening when the Order of the Phoenix convened for its meeting.

With all the members that were supposed to be present in the room Dumbledore rose from his seat and said, "I now call this meeting to order, and as such we shall begin with our first bit of business. Today I visited Harry Potter's house and his aunt informed me that he has not been there for several weeks. I have already spoken to Alastor, who has told me that he is at his house, but none the less I want to ask if anyone knows why Harry's aunt might say this as well as who exactly has seen the boy."

Kingsley just shook his head hearing these words from the supposed greatest wizard in the world. This was not the way he was hoping the meeting would start; instead everything would be forced to take place now before any information that didn't need to be leaked.

So he stood up and said in a calm tone, "I'm sorry Albus but it is time for new leadership of the Order. Speaking for a majority of the members it has been decided that you shall no longer be in charge and allowed to hold all the information. From now on this group will be run by a small group of people so that decisions are regulated. Most of the members are concerned with you taking such an interest in young Mr. Potter when you are not forth coming with details."

Taking a breath he continued, "After consulting with young Mr. Potter himself several of us found that you have been in fact controlling things in his life that you should never have been in charge of in the first place. This shows that you are willing to do things without consulting others when you feel necessary and this is not something that is taken lightly when we are at war dealing with lives of so many individuals."

There were mumblings from those that didn't know about his plan that supported Dumbledore. Most notable were Snape and Molly Weasley, while her husband remained indifferent.

"How dare any of you question the headmaster," Molly shrieked. "He is the most powerful wizard in the world as well as the wisest and you are questioning him. Who do you think you are to believe that you know better? All of you should be ashamed."

At this point this point Moody stood up and gave the redheaded Weasley matron a stare that would have frozen Attila the Hun for a moment, before saying in a dangerous voice, "Shut your trap you blasted woman. Don't you even think to lecture us here as if we are your children! You know nothing about fighting and even less about war. If you ever try to tell me what is in my best interests again you will find yourself hanging from a sealing for the rest of the week, you got that."

Molly just gulped and looked back at the ex-auror with a wide eyed expression.

"I have lost too many comrades in arms, and seen more terrors then most ever should and the only person that comes close besides Albus is the young Potter. Now as to what you just said, shut up and listen because then you might actually learn a thing or two. Everyone is fallible and that is why we do not want Albus holding all the cards anymore and why the Order will be run by a council from now on woman."

Moody then turned to Snape before adding, "Now Snape get out of here unless you want to be changed into a blasted snake. No one other then the headmaster trusts you and we will not let someone that we don't trust here things that we want to make sure shall be kept secret. Now get out of this house and do not return unless you get permission from the rightful owner of this place."

Snape gave a low snarl but was stopped from saying anything as several members leveled their wands at him.

"Was all of this really necessary?" asked Albus looking distinctly tired.

"Yes it is," stated Moody clearly.

"Now Albus," said Kingsley taking over for Moody, "we will not be talking about young Mr. Potter again at these meetings unless he is attacked, understood?"

The headmaster just nodded his head slowly wondering what was going on here. "Also the only people that will be on guard duty for him shall be Mad-Eye, Tonks, and I, all people he has approved of personally. The reason is that only the three of us can find Mr. Potter, which guarantees that nobody can harm him. We do not feel that his location should be revealed and therefore we will not tell you where his home is… ever."

A look of comprehension appeared on the wised mages face as he realized that Alastor had not lied to him and that Harry's aunt had told him the truth. He was beginning to realize that he was no longer the one in control of the war against Voldemort and that for the first time in a long time for him, he would no longer have all the information.

**Author's Note: Well I am done with all the projects that I had to work on for college and now that the semester finals are done I can work on my fics again. I apologize for the wait for the new chapter and hope that it meets approval. Now for the girls for those of you who don't know or have forgotten besides Narcissa the females that will be romantically linked with Harry are Parvati, Fleur, and the girl that I have chosen. You can guess and if you are right I will send a reply to you. For a hint I will let you know that it shall not be a Gryffindor girl, which means no Ginny or Hermione. Also there will be no Luna because I feel that I can write her character properly and I just can't see her with Harry in a romantic relationship.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven – Business**

A little over a week after the Order of the Phoenix changed Harry was found in the middle of a duel with Tonks.

Over the course of the time that Harry had been practicing his dueling he had gotten a lot better then he previously was before. While he knew he still couldn't come close to beating Voldemort in a duel he knew that he could at least survive in a straight duel with one of his inner circle for a period of time, or he might be able to actually win depending on the situation. This in part was due to the larger spell repertoire and new creativity including using some basic conjuration, transfiguration, and charms.

Tonks flung a yellow colored curse at his midsection, which made it difficult to duck or jump the spell.

Moving quickly Harry slid to the right and took a step forward before sending a banishing charm in his opponent's direction and then an orange blasting curse behind it incase she tried to use a shield to stop the charm.

However Tonks had also learned from the lessons that she gave Harry, and knew to move to the side after setting up a shield to dissipate the first spell. It wasn't the amount of spells that changed for her, but her ability to change dueling tactics due to the fact that Harry was such an unorthodox opponent.

A scarlet beam sped passed Harry's head as he spun diagonally to the left and forward due to the fact that a blue colored spell was coming at about waist level just to Harry's right.

Following a barrage of violet, red, yellow, and orange spells at Tonks, Harry sprinted towards his opponent in an attempt to get close so he could dislodge her wand and then bind her, thus eliminating any threat from her.

However Harry had tried this once before so when Tonks saw a stop in the spells she was prepared for Harry's charge. He did vary his style a good amount each time in part due to him having so many instructors teaching how to duel, but since she had seen almost all of his tactics she would be able to counter them in most cases.

Unfortunately for Harry he realized that Tonks had him, so he tried to do a leaping twist out of the way(basically a jumping corkscrew of his body) but he was hit with a banishing charm causing him to twist and collide into on of the mats that were now set up around the sides of the room. These mats had become common when Harry really got into his dueling so that way the injuries to the individual wouldn't be too bad.

Following this he was hit with a stunner, and his wands were summoned from him.

Tonks just gave a small laugh before waking Harry with a quick, "Enerviate." She continued to laugh at Harry's scowl, and his small berating.

"Shit… what the hell was I thinking trying that again so soon," said Harry as he dragged himself up. "I know better then trying the same thing twice on my opponent. I should have faked a sprint and then blasted her into the wall. Mistakes like that can get me killed. Keep my head or I will be seriously fucked over at the least!"

Tonks just laughed before tossing over Harry's wands and saying, "Relax Harry, the only reason that I got the drop on you there is because I have helped to train you. In a duel against a death eater they won't know what the bloody hell hit them with that tactic of yours. Most likely they will assume that you don't know nearly as much as you do because you go to Hogwarts and there is not formal dueling class there, let alone that there has been a different Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher there every freaking year."

Harry just nodded as he put away his holy and maple wands into their correct holsters. He knew that she was right but Harry still felt that he could be that much better and no one would be able to convince him otherwise.

"Alright we are done for the day because I want to go spend some time with my mom and aunt Bellatrix. I figure having me there helps keep things somewhat regulated," stated Tonks with a smile. "Now what are you going to be doing instead?"

Harry just gave a devious grin before saying, "Well since I already know that no one from the Order will be there today, I'm going to Diagon Alley to pick up my books for classes, including potions and a few others for my own use, and I need to refill my potions supplies."

"Wait a minute… you can't go on your own," stated Tonks before smacking him upside the head. "What are you trying to pull here? You can't apparate and there is no one that would be able to go with you!"

"Calm down Tonks," stated Harry. "You just said that I can take care of myself, plus I'm going to a public place and it isn't like I will be loitering around or be announcing my presence far and wide just to draw attention to myself."

Harry paused for a second before clearly but sharply stating, "But the main reason that I am going by myself is the fact that I am an adult and when and where I go is my choice dam it!"

Taking a step back Tonks just stood there staring at Harry. She knew that he was right and that there was nothing that she could do about it but it still didn't mean that she liked the fact. "You are right Harry, I have no right to stop you from leaving, but it doesn't mean that I have to like the fact."

Giving Tonks' shoulder a squeeze Harry went up to his bed room to grab a full money bag, which Narcissa had picked up for him so that when he went to school he would have some money available for Hogsmeade trips.

Pocketing the money into a fresh set of plain black robes, which weren't exactly proper fitting or of the highest quality, Harry walked down to the fireplace so as to leave.

Luckily no one was around as he tossed the floo powder into the fire place and clearly sated, "Diagon Alley." With a whooshing sound Harry disappeared into the green vortex of flames speeding towards his destination.

It seemed like only a moment later when Harry stumbled out of the floo barely managing to keep him upright. "Can't wait until I can apparate," mumbled Harry as he brushed himself off.

Moving quickly so as not to attract any attention he strode through the pub towards the area behind the magical pub, where he tapped the wall with his holy wand so as to make his way

The alley was fairly crowded but people were keeping to themselves for the most part, which made moving among the crowd without attracting attention easy enough. Luckily he didn't see anyone that he knew so he didn't have to try and purposely move away from them to avoid being seen and because of this he was able to get into the apothecary rather quickly as it was the closest store from the entry into the alley.

Walking up to the counter Harry clearly stated the items that he would need to the person behind the register, while most of the ingredients were for N.E.W.T. level potions Harry also picked up a few rarer potion items so as to be able to keep a large variety of ingredients available at the house. 'After all the more items the better,' he thought as the clerk moved around gathering everything together.

It didn't take long for all the ingredients to be collected, however the bill was rather expensive in the end with a total cost of twenty galleons and seven sickles. Most of it was because of the more expensive ingredients including dragon's blood. Harry took the contents in the bag and quickly shrunk everything before placing them inside of his robes and making his way back into the alley.

As Harry began walking towards Flourish and Blotts Harry thought he saw one of the Weasley twins a few yards ahead and coming in his direction. "Shit," mumbled Harry. "If they recognize me I could be in for some trouble, and I know that they can spot anything unusual."

The real fact that Harry didn't want to be caught by them though was that he wasn't sure where they stood in with their relationship to Dumbledore. Yes they had played quiditch together for four years and he had given them the money for their joke shop, but he didn't really talk to them outside of quiditch otherwise.

Moving quickly Harry was able to duck into the store and into the shelves as he began to look for his books.

Taking his time after collecting all the books that would be required for his N.E.W.T.s Harry began browsing through transfiguration books, charms books, and Defense Against the Dark Arts books for his own reading. Harry chuckled to himself realizing that last summer let alone a few months ago he would never have thought that he would be looking for extra books. It was just a lesson about how times change as well as people, and nothing could stop changes from occurring.

Collecting everything that he wanted to purchase Harry strolled over to the counter and hag the package bagged and shrunk. Then he proceeded to pay the costs and leave the store.

He wasn't paying to close attention to his immediate surroundings as he walked towards the Leaky Cauldron, when he bumped into someone and without thinking said, "Sorry bout that I wasn't looking where I was going."

The person gave Harry a quick glance before saying, "Harry what are you doing here in Diagon Alley? I thought you were staying at the Dursley's for the rest of the summer?" asked Fred, or George.

"Had to get out," said Harry carefully. "Keep it down though I don't need it announced that I'm here by you. Now who is it I am speaking to, and none of that bull with your name. So is it Fred or George that I have the pleasure of speaking to at the moment?"

"It is Fred my dear conspirator; now follow me as we have some things to discuss and it would be better if we have some privacy," said Fred as he wrapped and arm around Harry's shoulders and began leading him in the opposite direction of the Leaky Cauldron.

Now Harry was thinking quickly as to what exactly he could do in order to keep his presence in Diagon Alley being brought up at an order meeting. 'Is there anyway I can bribe his silence at the least?' Harry asked himself. 'Well what exactly would he want?'

As Fred silently led Harry towards his shop Harry realized the best way to make sure would be to expand his own investments. If he could expand Fred and George's business then he would have more people that he could have helping him. Besides he knew that Fred and George were excellent at their business.

Coming out of his thoughts Harry realized that Fred was bringing him to their joke shop, which they had established shortly after leaving Hogwarts last year.

Harry didn't really get to look around as Fred led him quickly to a back room, while motioning for George to join him.

It wasn't long before George came into the back room and after a quick conversation with Fred he turned to Harry and said, "Well Harry you have us in a bit of a situation here and unless we know why you are here we aren't sure what to do, so why don't you tell us what is going on?"

This was something strange to Harry because he couldn't remember the last time the twins were so serious. 'Come to think of it I don't think that they have ever been this serious."

"I'm willing to make a deal with you two in exchange for anything I tell you guys today being kept silent," said Harry carefully.

"What," began Fred.

"kind," continued George.

"of,"

"deal,"

"are,"

"we,"

"talking,"

"about,"

"here," finished Fred.

The whole sequence of speech moved flawlessly as the twins began to lose their seriousness with the prospect of what Harry could be talking about here could prove beneficial.

Harry smiled at the antics of the two before saying, "I was wondering how you would feel about expanding your business to including a location at Hogsmeade, with me gaining a small percentage of the profits of course."

The twins looked at each other before George turned back to Harry and began saying, "Interesting."

"to"

"say"

"the"

"least"

"this"

"is"

"definitely"

"intriguing"

"so"

"elaborate"

"o partner," finished Fred with a devious smile.

Harry's smile grew larger at these words. He then proceeded to say, "I was thinking about buying Zonko's shop and having it be in partnership with your shop as well. This would allow both shops to combine their product inventories so that way profits would be increased, better products would be produced, and best of all neither shop would be in competition with the other, which means that both shops popularities would rise."

The twins looked at each other before turning back to Harry with grins of their own.

"We"

"agree"

"o partner"

"of"

"ours"

"now"

"onto"

"the"

"reason"

"of"

"you"

"being"

"in"

"Diagon"

"Alley."

Harry just had to shake his head at how, when the two of them wanted too, they could make a whole sentence by alternating words flow as if it was just one of them speaking.

Before speaking Harry took a breath to calm his nerves. "Well the reason that I came here was that I needed to make a few purchases, due to the fact that I am now living at a property of my own and am legally of age. Now none of this is to be repeated to the Order. But if you have questions or need to contact me you can speak to Tonks or Remus when he returns from his mission."

Fred and George just nodded and waited for Harry to elaborate on his story.

"The reason for this is because those two know where I am presently living, and that is because I have taken control of my life," said Harry. Seeing the confused looks on his business partners faces he continued by saying, "I guess that I should start by saying that for a good portion of my life I have not had control over what takes place in my life, and I have finally become fed up with not having any control over my life. So when the opportunity presented itself I took advantage and now I am in a much better situation."

"Do," began George.

"elaborate"

"dear"

"partner"

"about"

"your"

"newfound"

"independence," finished Fred with a wave of his hand as for Harry to continue.

Harry smiled slightly before giving a somewhat edited version of him leaving Privet Drive by saying, "Basically I am now the active head of the Black Family as well as the Potter family and as such I am a legal adult. Once I found this out I moved into one of the ancestral homes of the Black family. The best thing about it is that no one knows that I am there or even where the place I am staying is located."

"Devious," began Fred.

"definitely"

"devious"

"bravo," commented George.

"Well now that your curiosity is satisfied," said Harry dryly, "I will be on my way back to my house. You two will be notified when Zonko's is purchased and remember to keep quiet about my presence here."

Both of them just nodded as Harry walked out from the back room and out of the store.

He let out a small sigh of relief as he moved from the shop back into the alley and finally made his way back towards the dingy pub. Harry knew that he was lucky that it was Fred and George that discovered him instead of someone else in the Order where he wouldn't know how to keep their mouths shut.

Harry moved quickly through the alley and made sure to avoid bumping into anyone this time, and it paid off as he reached the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron.

Putting a sickle in the tip jar Harry tossed in some floo powder and disappeared in a whirl of green flames.

Upon exiting the fireplace Harry checked to see what was going on in the house, as well as to show Tonks that nothing went wrong. He found her and her mother and aunt in the kitchen talking quietly.

Giving a small nod of his head when Tonks saw him he left so as to put away his purchases. After unshrinking his purchases he went around looking for his wife, wondering where she could possibly be.

It took him a while before he found her in pool located on the first floor of in one of the side wings.

Harry shut the door quietly, before he placed a powerful locking charm on the door and began getting undressed. It didn't take long for his clothes to be divested, which along with his wands and glasses were now in a pile on a reclining lounge seat, before he was diving into the water.

Narcissa looked over as she heard the splash of water and moved towards the shallow end, while Harry swam over her way.

It wasn't much longer before Harry had his arms wrapped around her waist and began kissing her neck taking his time working towards her collar bone.

Narcissa just leaned into him and gave a soft moan at her husband's actions before saying, "I take it you had a productive day to say the least."

Harry just spoke as he continued kissing her, "Very… and I'm just thinking about how much more productive it can be before we have a late dinner." After these words Harry put his full concentration back to Narcissa, while sliding the bottom of her bikini down to the pool floor with his left hand and then reaching towards her crotch with his right. 'O this was becoming a very productive day' thought Harry.

**Author's note: Sorry about the wait but I was a little lazy and I had some writers block, but after talking to one of my friends we were able to work out some plot for the chapter. Hopefully my next update will not take as long but no guarantees. Also the girl is not Susan Bones and just to let everyone know I am not just thinking along the lines of one girl from each house or anything like that.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve – Summer Ends & School Starts**

As the summer slowly came towards its end the letters addressed to Harry began to pick up. He was exchanging usually one to two letters a week with Parvati but more letters began to come. Most of them were from his so called friends trying to get him to leave Privet Drive, which they didn't know he had left, to go shopping with them at the very least.

Harry just shook his head at them, and how he couldn't wait to chew them out. People at Hogwarts would learn not to betray his trust and just how hard it would be for them to gain it back. He was already prepared for them trying to argue about him forgiving Cho, but that was a different situation one which he had worked through about what took place with his wife's help. She told him the truth and although Harry didn't like it he could at least be thankful that she didn't try and hide or lie about things.

One of the other things that occurred was Madam Malkin came over and with Narcissa's help the two witches designed a complete new wardrobe for Harry that fit his position in society. Also several plain outfits were picked out for casual needs. All of this was a long and expensive process in Harry's mind as it involved the two witches selecting which colors looked best on Harry and having each item measured and properly fitted depending upon the need of the item.

However Harry had the pleasure of dragging Narcissa to buy muggle clothes, which she had never done before. He could even remember the argument about why she would even need muggle clothes as she had lived in the wizarding world for her whole life and didn't plan on leaving anytime soon. Harry was quickly able to counter any argument by saying that if she needed to go into hiding she could easily go into the muggle world if needed and since none of the death eaters would ever figure that the former wife of Lucius Malfoy would ever be in the presence of muggles she would be perfectly safe.

It did help her opinion of muggle clothing when she tried on jeans for the first time and realized how well they complimented her bum and legs. She took great pleasure in bending over to tie her shoes while wiggling her bum in front of Harry in the store, which resulted in a thorough shagging when he got her back to their residence.

Aside from getting a new wardrobe and his typical lessons Bellatrix taught Harry some curses that Kingsley was not willing to teach Harry. All of these curses were borderline illegal as for the damage that they could do to a person. They ranged from the bone breaking curse to a rather nasty affixation curse that would knock the individual unconscious, as well as several pain curses that, while not as strong as the cruciatus, would target an individual limb and cause enough pain to get the individual to stop whatever they were in the process of doing.

While Kingsley pointed to Harry that he did not want Harry to run the risk of killing someone and was more concerned with the legal aspects, Bellatrix had no such compunctions about that sort of thing for Harry. As she had already shown him how to recognize and neutralize most of the curses that death eaters would use in a fight, she figured that if he could already neutralize them why not cast some of them and a few others that were not illegal, but still highly effective.

As for the Order of the Phoenix Dumbledore had made several attempts to try and either gain sole leadership or a position of leadership he was stopped. There was no mistaking the fact that the aged wizard had great intelligence and drive but with a group of people countering any moves that he tried to make Albus Dumbledore found himself on the outside for the first time in a long while.

(Time shift to the night before Hogwarts Express)

Harry and Narcissa were lounging on a couch Harry with his arms wrapped around his wife, who happened to be on top of him. Andromeda and her husband Ted had just left and Bellatrix went off to do something on her own, which neither Narcissa nor Harry knew exactly what it happened to be.

"What are you going to be doing, while I am at Hogwarts," asked Harry. It was something that had been bothering him for a couple of days as realization set in that he would be leaving. O Harry knew that he would be returning to school again but he had gotten very used to the summer routine, and he was extremely reluctant to leave the level of intimacy that he enjoyed with his wife.

Narcissa was just laying there for a moment thinking before responding with, "I was planning to look over your business holdings and seeing how much influence you hold over the economy. It would be beneficial to make sure that your investments are at the very least staying even if not making a profit. Who knows how long it has been since anyone has looked at your investments."

Harry just gave a murmur of agreement before saying, "You will let me know before you make any changes though, right? I would sort of like to learn a little bit about the businesses that I will be invested in since I am technically the one that owns everything."

"Of course Harry," she said all the while rubbing his arm.

"Good," said Harry into her hair. "We haven't really discussed this yet and every time I try to bring it up you put it off. What exactly am I supposed to do to Draco at school? He acts a lot like his father and I can guarantee that he will squeal to everyone that he can that we are married if he finds out."

He paused for a moment before continuing, "I may not like him, and I am being polite with that statement, but something needs to be done to him in order for us to keep things moving along smoothly."

Narcissa just lay there thinking about what they could possibly due to effectively neutralize Draco completely. It was a different situation from Bellatrix as Harry would not be able to use the Black family magic to force him into one house. For that to work the individual had to be born into one of the lines of the Black family. No matter if it was the primary line or not the individual had to heed whatever was said by the current head of the Black family.

If Sirius had known this he could have literally kicked his mother out of his childhood home, due to the fact that Sirius' mother, her aunt had no say over Sirius when her husband died. In fact anything that she did in the name of the Black family after the death of her husband that did not get approved did not actually occur.

Finally she realized a plausible solution that would actually work in the situation. "If I can get him to meet me for a couple of hours during the time you are at Hogwarts, I have a way to guarantee his silence as well as a way to insure that he will not try to kill either of us when he finds out. Have you ever heard of an unbreakable vow?"

Harry just shook his head having not heard what exactly it was but by the name alone he did have an idea.

"It is a vow that is tied to the individual's magic and forces that individual to comply with certain conditions," stated Narcissa. "As I know that my son is arrogant enough to believe that my husband is his father it will be simple enough."

Just before Harry could open his mouth and speak, she continued by saying, "This is the best way for it to work as he is not directly born into the Black family and you cannot force him by Black family magic to keep this silent."

"O," said Harry momentarily struck dumb.

"And to think that you are the only one that I have found worthy," said Narcissa. She then continued in a drawling tone by saying, "I guess this shows what a pitiful state the wizarding world is in at the moment if the only person that I find worthy is a sixteen year old and he hasn't even completed his magical education."

Harry just gave a light snort before pulling out his wand and silently shutting and locking the doors as well as casting a few silencing spells. He then flipped her over and gave her a grin before saying, "You are going to be sore tomorrow for that comment."

He then crushed his lips against hers and proceeded to make it a very enjoyable last night that he would be at the Black Manor for the both of them.

(Scene Break)

Harry woke up for the last time that summer in bed with his wife, feeling mighty good and sore. Slowly he disentangled himself from Narcissa so as not to wake her, before heading to the bathroom and drawing a hot bath.

As the tub was filling he went back to the nightstand by the bed and flicked his wand to silently cast the tempus spell. The numbers 8:45am appeared in green smoke.

Canceling the spell and then putting the wand down Harry relaxed knowing that he would have plenty of time before heading to platform 9 ¾ for the Hogwarts Express.

He had been soaking up the warm water for maybe five minutes before Narcissa lowered herself into the large marble tub.

"So did I achieve my goal of you having trouble walking?" asked Harry with one eyebrow quirked.

In response his wife just lifted her nose upwards slightly, before saying, "Marginally successful… I guess my training paid off."

Harry just laughed at her comment, knowing full well that he had succeeded. Slowly he pulled himself together before saying, "Well so long as milady is pleased."

It was something that Harry had learned about her personality over the summer. Besides family being important to her, she would only open up to those she felt were worthy. Blood purity did not really matter to her but it was what you did with yourself and how you affected others.

Harry was one of the rare people that had earned her respect, and she had shown him a lot more then most people would ever know about her. A lot of her respect for him came through her research into his life through various contacts that she had held. After all while she was still in her marriage to Lucius he was technically considered her enemy and as she was taught it is always best to know your enemy.

Narcissa just gave Harry a small shake of the head and a smile before luxuriating in the hot water, and about 45 minutes after Harry originally woke up the two of them got out of the tub to towel off.

Harry dressed in black slacks, a dark blue button down shirt, a slick black belt with a silver buckle, black shoes, and then a black school robe. He definitely liked having higher quality clothing and robes as they felt so much more comfortable.

Narcissa had opted for a black skirt, a dark grey blouse, black shoes, and a dark green robe to go over everything. In essence no one would look twice at her, which was exactly what she wanted. That coupled with a notice-me-not charm would allow her to say goodbye to Harry at the platform without drawing any attention to either of them.

They then proceeded to make their way to the kitchen where Cosmo had gone all out making sure that Harry would have a big enough breakfast, and due to the fact that it would be the last day for a while that the house elf would actually have a chance to cook for his new master.

Harry just sat down at the table bemused at the quantity of food that had been placed on the table. Some of the food he was not exactly sure that it was breakfast food so he called out, "Cosmo."

A second later the elf appeared and said, "You called Master Harry, sir?"

"Yes," said Harry calmly, before giving a wave of his hand. "What exactly is most of this stuff? I mean a decent portion looks to be dinner foods."

"Blood pudding, white and black sausage, bangers, scrambled eggs, bacon, rashers, and soda bread Master Harry," said the elf. "All part of a good Irish breakfast and the best way to keep Master Harry full until he arrives at school where he will be able to eat."

"O… ok," said Harry a little shocked at all the food.

"Now you are going to eat that all Master Harry," said Cosmo firmly as he began to load Harry's plate to the brim with a very large amount of food.

It took him a while but eventually Harry managed to clean most of the food from his plate leaving only a few bits and pieces. "I don't think I'll need to eat until dinner," said Harry with a small groan.

Narcissa just looked at her watch before saying, "I think we can work off some of that food before you leave."

Harry quickly found himself being dragged into an unused room and plopped into a chair, with his shirt open, robes off, and pants and boxers around his ankles, while his wife cast a locking a silencing charm before taking off her robe and showing Harry a sight that immediately brought him to full attention.

As his wife happened to be going commando Harry took full advantage of the hour that they had to themselves and made love to her one last time before school.

Shortly after Narcissa cleaned them up with a few flicks of her wand Harry said, "I am going to have to find a way to stop by every couple of weeks. Say that I have family business to take care of for the weekend."

"That wouldn't even be a lie," she responded.

"I know," said Harry in between butterfly kisses on her neck.

"Alright as much as I am enjoying this we need to get your trunk if you are going to arrive early as planned," she stated all though making no move away from him.

"Ok," said Harry in as even a tone as possible. He then wrapped his left arm around her waist while dispelling her charms. Then the two of them proceeded up to the master bedroom to grab Harry's trunk and shrink it before Harry went to the back of manor where there was an area for any owls.

Hedwig was perched next to Narcissa's spotted owl.

Harry walked over to her and stroked her feathers softly before saying, "Hey girl… I need you to fly to Hogwarts because I can't bring you to the train station with me."

Hedwig looked at her owner incredulously before Harry elaborated by saying, "Ok… the real reason is because how I'm getting there would cause you to get mad at me."

After receiving an affirmative hoot Harry made his way back towards the entrance hall where his wife was waiting with a portkey obtained by Kingsley.

A few minutes later the two of them arrived at the end of the platform, which was not to busy at the moment. They made their way towards a secluded alcove where they could say goodbye without being bothered.

Once they reached an area where they were sure they would not be overheard Narcissa began, "Remember to be careful about what you say and who you say it to this year, alright?"

Harry just gave her a small smile knowing that if he did it would not just bring undue attention to not only him but possibly her as well depending on what he could say. "I know, I'll be extra careful though."

"Good," she responded. "I'll let you know if I find out anything important. Now take care of yourself, because remember that arse of yours is still mine even if we aren't at the Black manor."

At those words Harry felt her had give his bum a firm squeeze to emphasize her point.

In return Harry just gave her a roguish grin and said, "I won't be forgetting that ever, and I'll let you know if I find anymore perspective woman."

"You better," Narcissa said with a mock growl. She then proceeded to look around the platform.

People were beginning to come through the barrier so she figured it would be the best time to leave before Harry was spotted with a woman, by someone that knew him.

She leaned in and gave him a solid kiss before saying, "I'll see you in a couple of weeks, but I better leave before more people get here."

Harry gave her one more kiss before she took a step back and disapparated from the station.

He looked around to see if the Weasley family and Hermione had arrived, before heading over and boarding the train.

Since there was still half an hour before the train would leave Harry began to walk around the train checking each of the compartments to see who had arrived. It would be better if he was in a compartment with others that way Ron, Hermione, and Ginny would not find him as they would expect him to be in a mostly empty compartment.

Harry moved along the train looking into the compartments to see who exactly was in them before moving along to the next one. While he did recognize some faces he really did not consider them to be friends.

He was getting close to the front of the train when he spotted a few people that he knew; well he knew their names and talked to them a little bit before. That was not the reason he stopped though. As he saw the glossy black hair that he so often associated with his first girlfriend he thought back to some of his summer conversations with Narcissa.

"Well better to have this conversation sooner then later," mumbled Harry before taking a breath.

He then carefully opened the door and knocked on the entrance to get the attention of the two females present.

While Marietta moved towards the window, Cho's eyes bulged slightly from the shock of seeing Harry Potter standing in the compartment entrance way.

Harry just stood there a second before saying, "Hello Cho, Marietta. I was hoping to find the two of you so that we could talk."

"Harry?" questioned Cho. "What are you doing here?" She had obviously not been listening as the sight of her ex-boyfriend being in her presence shocked her.

Harry just smiled before saying again, "I am here to talk to the two of you."

"May I take a seat?" he asked while gesturing with his hand to a seat on the side of the compartment opposite from the two seventh year Ravenclaw girls.

Cho looked over to her friend before turning back to Harry and saying, "Sure but close the compartment door please."

He gave nod of his head before stepping in farther. Harry the proceeded to shut the door and take a seat.

"I won't beat around the bush here, so I'll start with you Marietta," said Harry calmly. "We don't really know each other then me being Cho's boyfriend for most of last year. As such I knew that you were her friend, and you knew me as the-boy-who-lived and your best friend's boyfriend. Being Cho's best friend and her liking me caused you to be brought into an unfortunate situation last year unfortunately."

Marietta looked with she was about to open her mouth but Harry cut her off by raising his hand.

"Please let me continue and say my piece first," stated Harry in as polite a manner as possible. "Now since you did not know me that well you were not sure what to believe when the Daily Prophet started slandering my name. I can find this understandable now even if I didn't really last year. Because of this you didn't know what to believe about me and when your mother started pressuring you about helping out Umbridge last year, you felt a need to do so, in order to make sure nothing happened to her because of your actions. I know that what you were doing was believed to be for the best and because of that I can forgive you as I cannot judge those that I do not know about decisions that concern the welfare of others."

Both Marietta and Cho looked shocked by what Harry had just said, Cho because of what happened last year, and Marietta because she couldn't believe that someone other then Cho forgave her for last year.

He then turned his attention to the pretty Asian girl that was his first girlfriend. While he didn't have the feeling of butterflies in his stomach he still felt something for her and figured that he always would.

"Last year was a right mess between the two of us for a good portion of last year," started Harry.

"From Madam Puddifoots onward things were somewhat off kilter and it never got set straight. I now realize that a relationship between us would have needed to start either this year so that you would have had a year to get yourself collected as well as myself to be comfortable with what occurred, or we would have needed to have started it in my fourth year."

Harry paused for a moment to collect himself and prepare what he was going to say to Cho.

"What happened to Cedric was unfortunate because he did not deserve to die when he did; because we had no clue that cup was a portkey. If we had I would have damn well made sure that he didn't touch the cup. I have been more closely affected by these two wars then almost anyone I am willing to bet and I would rather not let anyone have to go through what I have been through."

He needed a moment as Sirius, Cedric, and his parents flashed into his mind. There was nothing that he could do and he had accepted their deaths but it did not make it any easier.

"I was so wrapped up in my grief last year that I forgot to tell you what happened to Cedric first hand, which is what I should have done. Then after Dumbledore left the school and I was almost expelled you came to talk to me, and I reacted horribly. I yelled at you at let off my frustration onto you when you had done nothing to deserve it. From this summer I realized that the two of us could never have a romantic relationship because of all the events that have occurred around us and between us. However I have realized that I want to be a close friend of yours because you are important to me. You are one of the few people that have lost someone that was close to you at our age, you were my first girlfriend, and finally you are one of only people that were attracted to me as Harry Potter and not the boy-who-lived. The reason I say this is because you liked me last year with all the crap that was being spewed about me, and had the courage to say that to me as well as even try to have a relationship even if it ended horribly."

Cho just sat there for a moment mulling over everything that Harry said carefully. "When the hell did you get so mature?" she asked.

Harry gave a short laugh before saying, "After spending my summer with people several years older then me I was able to learn how to act more mature in all situations."

He then turned to Marietta and said, "I noticed that you still have that curse on your face and I am willing to bet that you would like it taken off. So how about in exchange for having the pleasure of you two lovely ladies company for the journey to Hogwarts, I have that curse removed by Hermione, who created it as a way to find out if anyone told an outsider about the D.A.?"

Marietta's eyes widened before she dove across the compartment and hugged Harry all the while saying, "Thank you so much."

Harry just patted her back softly before she released him. "I'll take that as a yes to me staying?" said Harry as he quirked an eyebrow.

Cho responded by saying, "Of course you can stay. It would help to keep bloody Michael Corner away from me."

Harry turned his attention to her and waved his hand in a motion for her to elaborate.

"Last year after our fight, which ended our relationship, and at the end of the quiditch match against Gryffindor," said Cho. "He approached me and decided to try and initiate a relationship. So I tried spending time with him for a while, although never giving a romantic relationship a serious though, but he started pushing me so as to try and get what he wanted. It got so bad I had to curse him before he got the message that I wasn't interested in him in that manner what so ever. Then on the train ride back home at the end of last year Ginny Weasley spread the rumor that Corner and I were dating so I'm afraid he might come back again."

Harry nodded his head and said nothing for a moment. Finally he came up with a response, "Well don't worry about him because if he bothers you he will end up dealing with the end of my wand."

Marietta gave off a short giggle in response while Cho smiled at him. The tension of the compartment seemed to have been broken.

By this time the train was moving, and Harry finally relaxed knowing that he had achieved two goals at the same time. One being talking with Cho and apologizing for what occurred last year, while giving them a chance to have a close friendship, and second he had found a compartment where he would not be bothered by Ron, Ginny, or Hermione as they would never expect him to be spending time with Cho and Marietta.

The journey passed peacefully as the three of them talked first about minor things; before Harry took a nap to let the two girls catch up.

As they were getting close to Hogwarts Cho gently shook Harry awake and asked him to step outside so that they could change into their uniforms. So doing as bidden Harry stepped outside and waited before the compartment door was opened and he was allowed back inside.

"Aren't you going to get changed?" asked Marietta seeing that Harry was not exactly wearing the school uniform.

Harry just shook his head in a negative action before saying, "It is the first night back at school so I don't think that they will care."

The two girls just accepted Harry's response as the train pulled into Hogsmeade station.

'O this is going to be an interesting year,' thought Harry as he stood up.

**Author's Note: Another chapter done and this fic is heading in a direction that I am pleased with. So far no one has been able to guess who the fourth girl that he will end up with is so I will give this hint. I never said that I would use a girl from each house, just that the girl would not be a Gryffindor. For those that are not reading my other fic I have a few new challenges in my profile for those who are bored or have writers block, and my first challenge that I issued has been taken up by pruepotter, and it should be out within the next month. It is about Harry being raised with Draco by Narcissa and Remus, so it has a lot of interesting possibilities.**

**Remember I do read every review that I get and I greatly appreciate them even if I don't respond. I do take your suggestions and opinions into mind so as to help create a better fic even though it is still ultimately up to me where the plot goes. So just thought I would say thank you again to everyone that reviews and I want to let you know that I do truly appreciate them.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen – Friends? The Feast and the Beginning of Classes**

The carriage ride up to the castle was uneventful as he did not spot anyone that he would normally hang out with, which meant that he would have to wait until the feast to talk to his year mates and other friends at the school.

As he didn't see Ron, Hermione, or Ginny waiting he took an open seat next to his dorm mate

Seamus and decided to strike up a conversation.

Just as he began to open his mouth he was struck by a couple of bodies and all Harry could see before he hit the floor was a mass of busy brown hair and a shock of vibrant red hair.

Harry let out a small groan as he hit the floor, before saying, "Um… do you guys think that you could get off of me? I mean I know that you missed me but do I have to be lying on the floor while you try to squeeze the life out of me?"

Both girls jumped back realizing that what Harry had just said was true and in fact he was sprawled on the floor.

Since both faces turned red in embarrassment Harry had a few seconds to get up off of the floor before Hermione started the expected round of questions in full rapid fire mode.

"Where were you Harry? Why couldn't we find you on the train? Were you on the train? Why didn't you want to go to Diagon Alley with us? Are you alright? We couldn't tell because you didn't say much in your letters, so why didn't you send us more letters?" Once finished this left a breathless Hermione, and both Ron and Ginny nodding there heads in agreement with her questions.

"Um… I don't know why you guys couldn't find me but I was on the train," stated Harry allowing a pause so as to appear like he was somewhat confused that they couldn't find him. In truth Harry suspected that it was because he was sitting with Cho and Marietta, being partially blocked from the observers' eye. His friends would never expect to find him in the company of his ex-girlfriend believing that Harry would be to stubborn to talk to her again let alone share a compartment during the train ride.

"Anyways," continued Harry "why don't you three find seats the feast is about to start and you know that it won't wait until I have answered your questions to your satisfactions."

Hermione's eyebrows rose and Ron's eyes bulged slightly as this was a different attitude then they had most recently dealt with Harry in person.

It was Ginny who spoke next, "But there aren't any seats here Harry so why don't you get up so we can all sit together?"

The way she spoke was almost as if to make it seem like they really knew each other which almost made Harry want to laugh. When he did look back on it last year it was strange that she had the gall to believe that they were close enough that Harry would confide in her about his personal feelings.

"No offense but I feel like sitting with some of the other people in my year… you know getting to know them better, being more social instead of being aloof," said Harry.

"O… uh well then we will hang out after the feast… right mate?" asked Ron looking for some reassurance that they were still best friends, even if Harry could no longer trust them on the same level that he did previously.

"Sure," stated Harry giving them a half smile that left the three of them satisfied for the moment as they went to find some seats.

As they moved away Harry looked up to see that the new students had arrived and the sorting hat was being placed on the stool.

Instead of paying attention to the song Harry spent his time observing the head table where the professors sat. Upon his inspection there were two new teachers, both of them hooded so as to disguise themselves from the students, but the other difference was the fact that Snape was no longer sitting among the professors. After last year Harry would have bet money with anyone that Snape would be sitting at the head table at the beginning of the year just based on the fact that the headmaster seemed to trust him so much, even if no real reason was given to Harry about why Snape should be trusted.

Just as Harry was going through his self musings he was poked in the shoulder by Seamus. Harry looked at him before Seamus cocked his head over towards Parvati, and she mouthed, "You were spacing out for a minute, pay attention the sorting is almost done."

"Thanks," mouthed Harry back before turning his attention back to the head table where Dumbledore was just standing up.

"It is good to see so many faces back as well as so many new people," began the aged wizard. "I could go on about any number of things but I feel that it would be best if you were all fed first, so… tuck in."

No sooner had the words been spoken then the table was absolutely covered with food, as per the usual.

Just as Harry was taking his first bite Dean spoke up and asked, "So anyone have any clue what happened to Snape? I mean I'm obviously not complaining if he isn't here, but I would like to know if that is permanent or if it is just for a little while."

Harry nodded his head and his class mates seemed to agree with him before Neville spoke up, "I bet that is for a while at least… I mean otherwise why would there be two new teachers at the head table."

The others seemed to agree and soon the topics moved on to what people did over the summer as well as how they did on their O.W.L.s and what classes they would be taking.

Before long all the food had disappeared leaving everything spotless, and with the disappearance of the food everyone in the Great Hall turned their attention to the headmaster, who seemed to bring a sense of rightness to see him in charge of the school again.

"Welcome everyone, to a new year at Hogwarts," he began. "It is wonderful to see so many new faces as well as so many familiar ones. I am not going to make this a long speech as I am sure that you all wish to head back to your dormitories, so we shall start with the basic announcements."

"For all of the new students the Forbidden Forest is off limits due to the dangerous creatures that live there, and if you so happen to be caught heading into the forest you will be punished entering the forest could cost you your life. Mr. Filch has updated his list of banned items in the castle so if you wish to find out the items that are banned head to his office where the list is posted. No magic is to be used in the halls and if a student is found practicing magic they will cost their house points."

"Now on to other news… as Professor Snape shall no longer be teaching here at Hogwarts the head of Slytherin house will be Professor Sinistra."

At these words the young female astronomy teacher stood up and gave a small wave before resuming her seat.

As she was standing up Harry heard Dean say to Seamus, "Why the bloody hell do the snakes have to get the hottest professor that I have ever seen with my eyes?"

Here Harry just rolled his eyes, knowing that every straight male in Hogwarts that had hit puberty found the astronomy teacher attractive.

"As Professor Snape is no longer with us that unfortunately leaves two vacancies on the staff, which leads me to our first new professor," Dumbledore continued.

"The new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is Professor William Lynch."

Here one of the two professors that had their hoods drawn so as to cover their faces stood up and drew back his hood. He wasn't tall but he was decently built with an athletic appearance and short dark brown hair that looked to be maybe a quarter inch in length.

The main reason why it was hard to guess the age of the professor was because of his goatee, which made him look anywhere from twenty two all the way to about twenty eight. It did not matter either way as he seemed to hold him self with an air of confidence.

As for his appearance to Harry it seemed like the way he was dressed just plain suited him and it was definitely different to actually see a guy with facial hair in the wizarding world that was either wild or looking like it was meticulously done.

"For those of you wondering Professor Lynch comes from America highly qualified for the position. I hope that he will be here for many years to come and I hope that everyone will give him your utmost respect as he deserves it."

As Professor Lynch took a seat Dumbledore continued, "Now taking over at our potions position is a former triwizard tournament champion, Madam Fleur Delacour."

Fleur then proceeded to stand up and remove her hood showing off her slivery blond hair and giving the students a brilliant student.

"While somewhat young Madam Delacour is extremely well qualified coming here from Gringotts where she specialized in potions and charms triggered potions based traps in wizarding tombs. Prior to this year it was a requirement that you receive an O level in your O.W.L. for potions it is now possible to enter the N.E.W.T. level class with an E, but that will be after a discussion occurs between Professor Delacour and your head of house to see whether or not you would be capable of completing the work up to her standards."

"I am sure that I have given everyone more then enough information tonight, so after the Hogwarts song all of you can head back to your dormitories."

Several minutes later Harry was making his way back to Gryffindor tower where there would be a conversation guaranteed. This would occur even if Harry did not say that he would talk to his friends, Ron's stubbornness along with Hermione's persistence would force a conversation.

So when Harry finally arrived in the common room Ron, Ginny, and Hermione were already waiting for him.

"How about I just get right into what I have to say and you guys don't interrupt me and we can get this over with so I can get some sleep?" asked Harry.

Upon the three others nodding Harry took a seat and began by saying, "One of the important facts that you three should know is that I know that you will tell the headmaster anything that any of you consider dangerous to my life so why the heck should I put much into my letters when I don't know how much I can trust you three anymore?"

Here all three faces looked guilty but for once they kept silence without jumping to say something. "All of you know that I hate things being kept from me and yet you guys are willing to tell the headmaster about anything that you think is dangerous to me without telling me that you are going to do this breaks my trust in you three."

"That is the main reason why I didn't want to go to Diagon Alley with you three as I don't know how to consider you two friends anymore," at this Harry pointed to Ron and Hermione.

"As for you Ginny, I realized something over the summer, we have never been close and for you to go off on me at the end of last year about me not trusting you and saying that I should talk to you about my inner problems is a load of shit. I don't know you well, and therefore why in the bloody hell should I bother to trust you with my problems. Eventually I came to the conclusion that it was partly designed to draw my attention to you and considering your plan to make me your boyfriend it makes sense."

All three mouths were agape as this was a far different Harry then last year, and they had no clue as to how he knew this much let alone anything about these things at all.

"This information was given to me by a friend of my parents, who happened to be one of our teachers in third year, or Ginny's second year. He was fed up with just sitting back and not doing anything so he figured that the best way to help was to give me all of the facts so that way _I_ could make the best decision for myself and not be somewhat blind and be pushed into a situation that was caused by a lack of information."

"Other then that I am doing alright, I mean yes the death of Sirius hurt a lot, and still hurts but there is nothing that I can do about it so I just try to live my life to the fullest and believe that he has found happiness being with my parents again."

"Now since that is all that I have to say and I don't want to hear anything from you three I am going to bed and I will see everyone tomorrow."

Harry left three shocked individuals before climbing the stairs towards his dormitory, figuring that it would be best to give them sometime to think about what he said instead of trying to jump to a conclusion or impulsively trying to defend what they did.

When Harry woke up in the morning he saw that he was the first one in the room awake, 'Probably from taking a nap on the train,' thought Harry wryly.

Since he was the first one up Harry got to take his time and take a nice long shower before getting dressed into the school uniform and heading down to the Great Hall so as to at least get something into his stomach if he happened to be awake.

Giving a wave to Cho, who happened to be one of the few people in the Great Hall so early, Harry made his way over to the Gryffindor table, and by the time he was about halfway through his food the seats around him were filling up.

Harry finished quickly and after receiving his time table began to head towards his first class on his own. Pausing outside the Great Hall he saw that it happened to be Defense Against the Dark Arts. "Well it should be an interesting way to start the year if nothing else," he mumbled as he headed towards the classroom.

As Harry resumed his walk he heard a rhythmic drumming coming from the general area of the defense classroom. The closer he got the more it sounded like it was someone playing the drums in the room and the only person that Harry could figure would be doing that would be Professor Lynch since it was in fact the new teacher's classroom and the new Professor was not in the Great Hall for breakfast.

Seeing the door to the room open and now knowing pretty well that the sound was coming from the defense room Harry decided to walk into the room. Upon entering the room Harry stopped dead still for a moment just inside the doorway.

The reason for Harry's shock was the fact that although there was the sounds of someone playing on a drum set there was no drum set, no desks were visible, and for that matter Professor Lynch did not appear to be in the class room either.

Stepping out of the way Harry began looking around the room carefully, and even going so far as to walk through the class room looking for where everything was supposed to be. After a minute or two Harry just gave up and leaned against the wall in the back of the room wondering what in the hell was going on at the moment.

Slowly the class began to fill and it seemed that everyone was having the same problem as Harry was with what was going on in the room, and although he did not laugh it was funny to see Hermione so stumped about what was taking place.

When the bell rang Professor Lynch still had not appeared and people were beginning to talk about leaving when the door shut quickly and a voice said, "How about you all look up for a change."

Upon looking up the class saw all of the desks, including the Professor's desk, were stuck upside down to the ceiling along with a dark green drum set, which Professor Lynch was currently sitting at looking perfectly at ease. His sticks seemed to be somewhat of a blur as the moved with a well practiced rhythm driving out a rock style beat at a relatively quick tempo.

Shortly after stopping Professor Lynch flipped down to the ground by taking his hands and placing them onto the seat in the center of the drum set and proceeding to use it to right himself.

Then he drew his wand and within a couple of quick movements all of the desks were in their right place, and the dark green drum set was in the corner.

"Everyone please take a seat and I will discuss what I expect from you for the year and a little about myself," he stated calmly, while not locking his vision onto anyone in particular.

Quickly everyone had taken a seat and waited for their new Professor to continue. "Now in this class we will cover many things ranging from dark creatures to dark spells and artifacts. It is best for everyone to remember that this is not a dueling class and as such you will not be learning how to duel."

At these words Hermione automatically raised her hand trying to ask a question, but her Professor Lynch said, "Please no questions yet. Now since I just told you what we will be covering in general I will tell you a little about myself. I come from the United States where I attended a private college and got a degree in Finance and Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Here there were several people that looked confused as to what the Professor had just said and upon seeing these looks Professor Lynch elaborated.

"In the United States because the magical world is highly integrated with the United States it is believed that a person should not just learn magic but everything because whether those in Britain will ever admit it non-magical people have far surpassed magic in some areas and it is in the best interest of a witch or a wizard to know more then just a narrow minded set of beliefs that help to cause idiotic beliefs that just because a person can use magic makes them superior to someone that is not able to use magic."

"But back to myself before I digress too much, I am what you could call a sorcerer, which means I am more powerful then the average witch or wizard, and I am somewhat of a sports enthusiast. Now I am not talking about quiditch because while I enjoy the sport there are sports in the muggle world that I prefer."

"Well since I believe that I have told you enough information about myself we shall get onto our lesson plan for today. Wands out and everything else put away if you please."

Upon hearing these words the few that had taken out the book as well as a quill and parchment put it away as quickly as they could.

Giving everyone a small smile Professor Lynch started his lesson by saying, "Today I will be attempting to teach everyone to disarm their partner silently. Now being able to cast a spell silently gives the big advantage of not alerting a creature, or a person as to the fact of what spell will be cast, whether or not a spell will be cast, and when exactly a spell will be cast."

"The key to cast a spell silently is believing that it is possible to cast the spell silently, and then the second key is that realizing that when you say the spell out loud all you are really doing is giving you something to focus on instead so that you will perform the spell. Now divide up into pairs and I will come around and help you."

**Author's note: Sorry about the wait as I know that many of you have been eagerly awaiting this next chapter. All I can say is that between the amount of hours I was working and the fact that it was difficult to have free time it was hard to actually sit down and type the chapter. Remember no guarantees as to when the next chapter will be out but I just ask that everyone be patient and I will promise to get the next chapter out sooner.**

**A good motivation would be if someone took up the challenge of writing a fic where Harry is raised by James, Lily, and Narcissa (James married both of them). In the fic Harry is still the boy-who-lived as his grandparents sacrificed themselves for Harry. If anyone decides that they are interested in writing a fic for this idea contact me and I will give them more information, will be willing to give them ideas as needed, and will beta for the fic if needed.**

**Also if anyone is interested in a really good fic and has not read the story try Unknown Memories by Fission22.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**** – O What a Fun Day**

With about twenty minutes left in class Professor Lynch stopped the class and had everyone retake their seats.

"Not bad for your first day everyone," he stated. "For homework I want an essay on what makes a creature a dark creature, and the length should be between 500 and 750 words in length, which will be due first class next week. You name, the date, class title, and my name do not count in the length of the assignment."

Quills were heard scribbling down the assignment while Professor Lynch waited silently.

"Now I know that you all have questions for me but I would rather wait until our next class which will be a double period. Instead I want to talk to all of you about a misconception that I find despicable."

Here the class raised some eyebrows wondering what Professor Lynch could be talking about.

"In Britain there is the false belief that Merlin actually existed and was in fact the world's greatest wizard ever to live. This is a lie that has existed for far too long and the fact that it has been allowed to continue let alone change society to the point that it has I find disturbing."

At these words it looked like several people if not most of the class wanted to object, while Harry just leaned back waiting to see what would happen next. It was something that Narcissa and he had talked about over the summer and they had both come to the belief that there was no actual proof that Merlin existed. Studying history was something that Narcissa did so as to help her with business decisions as well as when dealing with the ministry.

"Everyone settle down and listen to the facts before you try something that you will fail to accomplish. The legend of Merlin and King Arthur were brought over to Britain by the Normans shortly after 1066, which coincidently was after the founding of Hogwarts."

"With the Normans taking control of Britain all culture that might have developed was squashed and in fact there are very few things today that could be considered originally from Britain, but I digress. Anyways with the arrival of the legend of Merlin and King Arthur existing in muggle Britain the witches and wizards of the time had a way to help introduce magic to muggleborns. It was a lot easier to bring someone into the world of magic if you told them that Merlin existed and that he was the greatest wizard ever. So by creating the Order of Merlin as a way of keeping the Merlin idea present the pureblood wizards allowed a concession, which has over the years been forgotten."

"Now I know that some of you may argue this by saying that there are images of Merlin in the wizarding world of Britain, but I can counter this point. The image that is on things such as chocolate frog cards are simply the way that they are because in all the tales of Merlin he is described as an old wizard with a white beard, and from that point it does not take to much effort to be able to create a believable image for portraits. This is then coupled with an enchanter so as to create a life like image that no one has really challenged over the years."

The class sat stunned at what they had just heard. Nobody could believe that a Professor would say something so controversial let alone during the first class of the new school year.

Professor Lynch on the other had seemed perfectly at ease leaning against his desk at the front of the class. He then looked at his watch and said, "Well seeing as how I have now shocked you senseless I shall allow you to leave five minutes early so that you all have some time to get to your next class and to try and prepare yourselves for that class."

As everyone slowly left the class room, Hermione decided to vent some frustration about what was just stated by one of their new professors.

"I can't believe that he would say something so utterly ridiculous. Everyone knows that Merlin existed and that he was the greatest wizard to have ever lived and that he was so great that even muggles know that he existed."

Ron just nodded his head and looking as if he completely agreed with her about the subject as well as several others that were around.

Harry figured that it might be fun to knock down Hermione a peg or two said, "Actually Professor Lynch is completely right."

Here Hermione whipped her head towards him getting ready to give a full retort about how she could not possibly be wrong because several books stated that Merlin existed.

However Harry had figured that someone would say something otherwise so he just continued to speak, "I mean if you really research Merlin you will find that there are no books that actually state any time period when he might have existed. Second there isn't a shred of information about what exactly Merlin did that can be called credible. Really any evidence that Merlin existed is like saying that house-elves want to be free and be paid and that they hate doing household chores and caring for families."

Finishing his statement Harry left a completely shocked Hermione Granger in his wake before moving along to charms.

Charms class was much the same as DADA, which meant to Harry that it was fairly boring, so when the class ended Harry was extremely grateful for it being time for lunch.

As he was making his way towards the Great Hall he heard a commotion behind him so he turned around to see what was happening, and to his surprise he saw Draco Malfoy stuck to the wall spread eagle, while a Hispanic individual dressed in black robes had his wand out.

Soon Professor Lynch had appeared and he looked at the situation before turning his attention to the stranger and saying, "Hello Orlando… so I take it you were hired?"

The man turned his attention towards Professor Lynch and said, "Of course… I mean like they would really turn down a fully qualified instructor that has been recommended by someone on the staff."

"So your girlfriend still in Japan?" asked Professor Lynch, who seemed to completely forget about the fact that Draco was stuck to a wall.

"She is just clearing up some issues before she moves," he replied. "Your mustang in the country yet?"

"No, no I left it in the states so that way I have a car when I go and visit either my brothers or the folks. Anyways my little brother might use it a few times while his RX-7 gets its new parts put in and properly tuned."

"When did he get that?"

"Just after he graduated with his masters in structural engineering and transfiguration," replied Professor Lynch.

All of the sudden Professor McGonagall came and looked at the situation before turning to Professor Lynch and saying, "What exactly is going on here Professor? Why is Mr. Malfoy sticking to the wall and are you doing nothing about it? As a Professor you punish a student by giving them a detention and taking away house points."

Professor Lynch turned to look at his friend to see his amused look before turning back to Professor McGonagall and replying with, "Why should I punish the whole house by taking away points? I mean that isn't really fair to the house that because one person decides to act in a negative manner that they all should suffer. Besides I happen to think that there is nothing wrong with him being stuck to a wall as I'm sure that my friend had a perfectly good reason for placing him against the wall and holding him against said wall."

McGonagall turned to Professor Lynch's friend and said, "Now who are you to do such a thing and why are you in Hogwarts?"

"Allow me to introduce myself… I am the new dueling Professor just hired by Professor Dumbledore today, Orlando Martinez. I stuck this young man, I think that you called him Mr. Malfoy, to the wall because he was harassing some of your younger students. Personally I thought that this would be a better punishment then a detention because it shows a direct consequence to an action instead of a delayed response where he might argue with myself about my status."

"Make no mistake we will have a talk about this later Professor," replied the deputy headmistress. "Now release him from the wall so that the headmaster may make the announcement of a new dueling teacher."

With a flick of his wrist the new Professor dropped Draco from the wall to his feat where the blond boy stormed away looking furious that someone had even dared to do something against him.

Harry just grinned at the whole situation before turning and walking to the Great Hall feeling that this day just kept getting better and better. First a teacher that appeared to be competent at the very least was running DADA, then Draco was humiliated, then he knew that there was now a Dueling Professor, and this was all before lunch!

Shortly after he arrived at the Gryffindor table Harry looked at the head table and saw the new dueling Professor engaged in what could have been either a lively conversation with Fleur or flirting between the two of them, while Professor Lynch was seated at his other side talking rather closely to Professor Sinistra.

As the Headmaster stood up the noise in the Great Hall slowly settled down as the expected announcement of the new Dueling Professor was to begin.

"Students, it is my great pleasure to introduce a new Professor to everyone, Professor Orlando Martinez. He also comes highly qualified from the United States just like Professor Lynch. His dueling class will be an optional class for those in their third year or above and this addition to the number of classes comes from the idea that some changes should be made so that way those that might choose careers involving dueling will be better prepared for life after Hogwarts. Now I hope that everyone will make Professor Martinez feel welcome. Those that wish to sign up should tell their head of house by giving them notification on a piece of parchment and by next week the class will start with those that are able to attend."

"Now everyone get to their lunch as there are still classes this afternoon."

The Great Hall turned back into its rather boisterous self within no time as people at every table were commenting about the new dueling class.

During lunch Harry talked a little with Ron about quiditch tryouts Katie Bell came over and talked about what to do with the chaser line. While she did not want to be captain she suggested that in order to better counter the Slytherin tactics it would be a good idea to add a stronger player that might be less polished in the air because with practice they could always become better but size and strength could not be solved by practice alone.

As Harry and Hermione walked towards potions Harry mulled over this idea that Katie had given him. It would definitely be a good thing to add some size to the chaser line because there would be no way that the chaser group could work as well as it had in the previous years that Harry had played on the team. The three prior to this year knew exactly what to expect and worked together seamlessly which gave Gryffindor not only the most talented chaser group of all the teams but also the group that worked together the best and by losing two of the three of them there would be no way to regain that cohesiveness.

The door to the dungeon classroom was open so Harry and Hermione entered and began to sit down when Fleur, no Professor Delacour, entered the room and said, "Do not sit down as I 'ave chozen seats and partners for 'ze year."

"Goldstein and Malfoy," stated Fleur pointing to a table in the front left of the lab.

"Granger and Li."

"Greengrass and Potter," she said while motioning the station in the front corner opposite of the entrance.

Harry took his seat next to the strawberry blonde haired Slytherin female that he knew almost nothing about other then she was a Slytherin.

While Professor Delacour assigned seat to the rest of the class Harry took the chance to get a look at his partner's appearance. As he looked her over quickly he came to the realization that she was fairly attractive but with the school robes and the fact that she was in Slytherin she would be able to avoid notice of those that she was not interested in having a relationship with.

This was something that Harry had picked up from one of the few times that he had talked with Andromeda Tonks. Most females in Slytherin usually liked to avoid notice as most were purebloods and would either have an arranged marriage or they would avoid most of the boys in Hogwarts so that they could pick out their desired partner for an arranged marriage.

"You were assigned these seats because based on everyone's' previous grades and OWL results I have figured where people would best benefit," Professor Delacour stated.

"I 'esire everyone to learn as much as possible while they are in my class and I feel the best way to achieve this is by assigning partners. Your assigned potion for the day is on the board so everyone get started immediately. This potion is designed for me to observe everybody's skill level as well as to see what I need to cover in addition to your N.E.W.T. preparation."

Fleur walked around the room making notes of every ones progress while also stopping partners if she noticed something was wrong with the potion. For some reason unknown to Harry she did not stop at Daphne and his station once, but Daphne just instructed Harry on what he needed to do to make the potion up properly.

Finally as the class was ending Fleur said, "Mr. Potter and Ms. Greengrass please wait here a moment I would like to talk with the two of you alone."

After everyone left the class she began by saying, "Mr. Potter, or if I may call you 'Arry" here she paused for a moment before Harry nodded his head indicating that she could call him by his first name. "For the rest of your time at Hogwarts I would like for you to be taught by Ms. Greengrass. This is because she is the top student in potions that this school has seen in almost a decade and she is working towards becoming a potions Mistress and in order to do so it is in her best interests to be tutoring a student personally for the N.E.W.T. in potions. You are the only student with an EE on your OWL for potions that did not have an EE for a class average previously and as such I felt that you would be the best person to receive such private instruction."

"Now what this means is that you will not officially be my student but you will attend the class and follow the work that Daphne assigns for you to cover, but you will still be taking you N.E.W.T. for potions. The reason that you two will be in class is that way I will be able to keep an eye on Ms. Greengrass so as to observe her teaching methods. It is up to the two of you but I would recommend that Ms. Greengrass and you meet someplace so that she may test your knowledge as well as teach you things that she believes will help you in potion making."

Daphne and Harry were dismissed a minute later and had walked out of the room before Daphne said, "Meet me in the corner farthest away from the entrance to the library tomorrow evening Potter at 7:30 sharp. From there we can work on arranging future meetings depending upon how much help you actually need with potions because I know for a fact that Snape was in no way fair with his assessment of your actual skill."

On that note she just turned and walked away from Harry leaving him to shrug his shoulders before heading to the tower so he could drop his bag off in his dormitory. Upon reaching the Great Hall later for dinner he sat down with Ron and Hermione so to show them that while he was ticked off at them for betraying his trust they were still friends even if he could never trust them the same way. After all Harry reasoned it was rather hard to just stop being friends with his two first friends.

During dinner the conversation was simple talking about things like the new professors and how different this year seemed to be looking, as well as Quidditch although it was amusing to see Ron's shocked face when Harry announced that as a Tornadoes fan that he more then liked their chances for winning the league this season. Ron actually managed to control himself enough to say that he thought that Harry was a Cannons fan.

"No… that was you assuming that I was a Cannons fan and me not having a team at the time," replied Harry calmly. "I found out from Remus this summer that the Potter family has a twenty percent ownership stake in the Tornadoes so that makes me a fan of their team by default as when they do well I make more money."

Ron was able to accept this as it was and allowed Hermione to steer the conversation away from Quidditch as getting into a rant about the Tornadoes was not the best idea. The rest of the night was fairly quite as they hung out with most the people in their year in the common room before heading to bed later.

**Author's note: I wanted to put this in to explain Harry and Narcissa's relationship properly. They are in a more physical relationship as Harry is a teenage male and Narcissa was in a state of near celibacy while being married to Lucius. In that manner it is mutually beneficial because they both are being physically satisfied. They are not in love but are close friends and in a way you could think of it as friends with benefits except that they are married.**

**O yeah I will not be surprised if there are flames about the whole Merlin thing and I am not going to take them personally. I have researched the origins of the King Arthur legends and thought that it would be interesting to go against cannon in this case. I do not know the reason why Madam Rowling decided to make it so that Merlin did exist in the HP universe but I figured that with all these fics that talk about Merlin in such high regard it would be amusing to see someone say that he did not exist.**


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